When the piracy threat escalated in the Gulf of Aden a few years ago, one of the countermeasures was to offer shipping lines the protection of sailing in convoys. This provided better protection for all lines, yet they also retained their own flexibility by choosing whether individual vessels should join a convoy. While this was not the only response to piracy, it clearly played a role in drastically reducing the amount of successful hijackings in the area.
Today,
