The debate regarding piracy off the coast of Somalia (and ship security) in Sweden has for the last years been focusing on the possibility to have armed guards on board. Swedish ship owners association has the opinion that Swedish ships should have the possibility to use armed guards and that it should be regulated by Swedish law (at the moment it is unregulated). I don't mind their position, but I can maybe think that the debate has been somewhat single-minded.
As I understand it will now be regulated (and allowed) from Jan 2013. Which of course is better than the current situation, but it won't really change anything as guards already are used on Swedish ships and most often picked out with reasonable care.
I'm however more interested in were the ship security focus will be turned now when the big former question seems to be resolved. I can think that one important issue is to educate people about how lonely ships are on the seas and that the security is limited to the ships security, there is no one else, no police to call. Which also stresses the point that ship security is not only a question of terror threats using ships against ports, ie that ships are important of their own.
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