The Illicit Global Economy And State Power

Illicit cross-border flows, such as the smuggling of drugs, are proliferating on a global scale. This volume explores the selective nature of the state's retreat, persistence and reassertion in relation to the illicit global economy.

Economists explore the relationship between expanding international trade and the parallel growth in illicit trade, including illegal drugs, smuggling, and organized crime. As international trade has expanded dramatically in the postwar period--an expansion accelerated by the opening of China, Russia, India, and Eastern Europe--illicit international trade has grown in tandem with it. This volume uses the economist's toolkit to examine the economic, political, and social problems resulting from such illicit activities as illegal drug trade, smuggling, and organized crime. The contributors consider several aspects of the illegal drug market, including the sometimes puzzling relationships among purity, price, and risk; the effect of globalization on the heroin and cocaine markets, examined both through mathematical models and with empirical data from the U.K; the spread of khat, a psychoactive drug imported legally to the U.K. as a vegetable; and the economic effect of the "war on drugs" on producer and consumer countries. Other chapters examine the hidden financial flows of organized crime, patterns of smuggling in international trade, Iran's illicit trading activity, and the impact of mafia-like crime on foreign direct investment in Italy.

A groundbreaking investigation of how illicit commerce is changing the world by transforming economies, reshaping politics, and capturing governments.In this fascinating and comprehensive examination of the underside of globalization, Moises Naím illuminates the struggle between traffickers and the hamstrung bureaucracies trying to control them. From illegal migrants to drugs to weapons to laundered money to counterfeit goods, the black market produces enormous profits that are reinvested to create new businesses, enable terrorists, and even to take over governments. Naím reveals the inner workings of these amazingly efficient international organizations and shows why it is so hard — and so necessary to contain them. Riveting and deeply informed, Illicit will change how you see the world around you.

Scientific Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 69, University of Sheffield (Department of Politics), course: The Political Economy of Globalisation, language: English, abstract: To cite an example of global illicit trade, a credit card fraud begins with a Vietnamese shopkeeper in USA as he swipes the customer card in a special fraud machine. This machine electronically transmits card details to Hong Kong crime syndicate, which collects the information from different ports in US to send it to Malaysia for manufacturing of fake credit cards. These cards are then couriered to Italy where another organised crime group sells them to their Russian counterparts in Czechoslovakia. Here these cards are used to make payments for several online orders in London, Paris and Rome; goods are then flown and sold in Moscow, Russia within 200 hours of first card swipe. According to an online estimate, the global illicit market value stands at US $1.78 trillion. The intricacies of its transnational web are far more complicated then its legal counterpart. This essay analyses the relationship between globalisation and clandestine economy of the globe.

“The strength of this book is that it does not look at a single case or even a few disparate examples of drug, weapon, and human trafficking but looks at many patterns—intra-regionally, cross-nationally, and internationally. It is an innovative addition to the literature on the nature of the safe havens—or ‘black spots’—currently being used for illicit activity. This book will make a clear impact on the scholarship of transnational crime and the geopolitics of the illicit global economy.” —Jeremy Morris, Aarhus University, Denmark Transnational criminal, insurgent, and terrorist organizations seek places that they can govern and operate from with minimum interference from law enforcement. This book examines 80 such safe havens which function outside effective state-based government control and are sustained by illicit economic activities. Brown and Hermann call these geographic locations ‘black spots’ because, like black holes in astronomy that defy the laws of Newtonian physics, they defy the world as defined by the Westphalian state system. The authors map flows of insecurity such as trafficking in drugs, weapons, and people, providing an unusually clear view of the hubs and networks that form as a result. As transnational crime is increasing on the internet, Brown and Hermann also explore if there are places in cyberspace which can be considered black spots. They conclude by elaborating the challenges that black spots pose for law enforcement and both national and international governance.

Unlike much of the existing literature on organised crime, this book is less focused on the problem per se as it is on understanding its implications. The latter, especially in fragile and conflict regions, amount to strategic challenges for the state. Whereas most commentators would agree that criminal activities are harmful, this volume addresses the questions of ‘how?’, ‘for whom?’ and, controversially, ‘are they always harmful?’ The volume is authored by experts with multi-year experience analysing criminal and other non-state activities. They do so through different lenses - conflict and security, development, and technology - engaging academics, practitioners and policy makers. They offer a comprehensive integrated response to the challenges of transnational organised crime beyond traditional law-enforcement driven recommendations.

Crime has gone global. Conventional explanations point to ways in which criminals have exploited technological innovations, deregulation, and free markets to triumph over state sovereignty. 'Crime and the Global Political Economy' reveals a more complex reality.

"A deeply insightful book that connects the dots of the hidden systems that have subverted democracy and caused the type of desperation and anger that result in a 9/11. A book that opens our awareness."--John Perkins, author of The New York Times bestseller Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man "Anyone interested in global economic crime should read this book."--Charmian Gooch, a founding director of Global Witness "Global Outlaws is a revealing book about a global trend whose importance is still far from being fully recognized."--Moises Naim, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine and author of Illicit: How Smugglers Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy "Carolyn Nordstrom's important new book takes us on a dark journey through war-torn landscapes riddled with corruption, violence, and gross inequalities. It is a compelling study--one guided by the norms of scholarly research but also written out of deeply felt experience. A book infused by anger, compassion, but also hope."--Andrew Mack, University of British Columbia "This is a fascinating, insightful, and important ethnographic study of the intersection of crime, finance, and power in the illegal, 'informal', or underground economy. I have read all of Carolyn Nordstrom's books, and this is the best one yet."--Jeff Sluka, Massey University "Carolyn Nordstrom's Global Outlaws is a rare and remarkable fusion of economic anthropology and travel writing. The prose is highly engaging without being sensationalistic. This is a timely and fascinating read for anyone looking for an on-the-ground account of the clandestine underside of globalization."--Peter Andreas, co-author of Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations "Carolyn Nordstrom is the best fieldworker in anthropology, bar none. Yet again she has pioneered new fieldsites and new forms of ethnography in this book, as well as presented a new framework for viewing economics and economic power. This is undoubtedly a highly important work that sets new frontiers for anthropology."--Monique Skidmore, Australian National University