KUALA LUMPUR — Although the conditions for piracy and terrorism to thrive are similar, their objectives are different. The motivation for piracy is old-fashioned greed while terrorists are predominantly driven by political and religious ideology. Moreover, pirates usually want to grab their booty and disappear; terrorists want as much publicity for their acts as possible.

Conflation of the two groups results from the common political and economic circumstances under which both piracy and terrorism tend to thrive. Since the war on terror began, there has been a noticeable tendency to lump criminals and political/religious extremists at the source and in the solution.

However, there is no credible evidence thus far to support speculation of a nexus emerging between pirates and terrorists. In fact, the two groups may view each other as a problem because each stimulates increased surveillance and enforcement against the other. Prescribing the same remedy for what are essentially two distinctly separate phenomena is not helpful in blunting the threat.