ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book presents a study of the pirate figure as it appears in the context of various global orders from antiquity until the early eighteenth century. It discusses the ways in which a new global order, based on a strict division between Europe and the New World, emerged in the second half of the sixteenth century. The book examines the ways in which the spectre of eighteenth-century piracy continues to haunt modern international law, playing an important role in the history of European Imperialism, in the escalation to total war in the twentieth century, and today in the context of the War on Terror. Finally, it also discusses the closure of the Golden Age of piracy and its legacy, which pulses at the heart of modernity and international law.
