eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Since the end of the Cold War, transnational non-state forces have been a major source of global instability, with many ominous and disruptive flows of people, goods, and services moving readily across international boundaries. And because these activities are so multifaceted and so intertwined within the fabric of society, they remain largely invisible until the intrusion is well-advanced and difficult to reverse. Thus, the threat posed by transnational organized crime ultimately undermines the total security of countries—including the economic, cultural, and political dimensions—and now presents an international security challenge of staggering proportions.
Surprisingly, no single book so far has fully addressed the scale of this threat to global stability from an international security perspective. In an attempt to rectify that failure, Dark Logic examines in depth when and how transnational organized crime is likely to use corruption and violence to achieve its ends, and when and how these criminal activities most affect individual and state security. Even more important, it pinpoints when and how the negative consequences of these tactics and activities can be most successfully combated. In so doing it provides a unique lens for analyzing today's global security dilemmas.
Given that the threat associated with transnational organized crime can endanger all citizens—from policy makers and security analysts to students, scholars, and the "man and woman on the street"—this book is written in an intelligible and jargon-free style to make it accessible to anyone interested in the ever-growing catalog of threats to national and international security.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804776776 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford Security Studies |
| Publication date: | 11/09/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Dark Logic
TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL TACTICS AND GLOBAL SECURITYBy Robert Mandel
Stanford University Press
Copyright © 2011 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-6993-8
Chapter One
INTRODUCTIONThe Central Question
SINCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR, transnational nonstate forces have been a major source of global instability, and many ominous disruptive flows of people, goods, and services have moved readily across international boundaries. Deflecting attention away from transnational organized crime as a primary facilitator of these critical disruptive flows was first the sense of euphoria associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and then later the focus on transnational terrorism triggered by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. Although some analysts go too far in claiming that currently "the dimensions of global organized crime present a greater international security challenge than anything western democracies had to cope with during the Cold War," the transnational criminal threat is nonetheless highly insidious at a lower level. There is now a pivotal hole in our understanding of transnational criminals' decision making about the means to pursue their illicit ends and the security implications of these decisions.
This investigation begins to remedy this crucial analytical deficiency. Challenging puzzles requiring probing investigation surround the pervasive yet clandestine presence of transnational organized crime in the contemporary world, and focusing on these puzzles provides deeper insight into the nature of its operations and their consequences. So little is known about the modus operandi of transnational criminal organizations, and what little understanding does exist rarely distinguishes among their disruptive tactics or links these tactics to different kinds of security impacts. Consequently, an urgent need exists to explore within the contemporary international relations environment the dark logic behind transnational organized crime, its subtle fluid patterns, and the resulting interference with effective security protection.
Proper appraisal of the disruptive tactics, security impacts, and corrective responses pertaining to transnational organized crime involves considerable complexity. Indeed, upon closer scrutiny, many conventional assumptions about the causes, consequences, and cures of transnational criminal activities prove to be controversial, wrongheaded, or ill-advised. Disagreements abound among experts even about the most basic issue of whether transnational organized crime is worthy of security attention. Today many global political leaders possess conflicting conceptions and misunderstandings about how to gauge the elusive dangers involved, and, as a result, their policy responses have generally failed to achieve stated goals. This investigation's primary aim is to shed significant new light on the topic to create a more coherent and probing comprehension of the operational dynamics of transnational organized crime, the ways in which it disrupts security, the reasons for its success and the failure of attempts to constrain it, and some fresh ideas to help those responsible to grapple more successfully with this global threat.
THE NATURE OF THIS STUDY'S CENTRAL QUESTION
This study focuses on two particular issues: (1) when and how transnational criminal organizations choose corruption and violence tactics and (2) when and how transnational criminal activities generate individual/human and national/state security impacts. The specific central question is as follows:
Under what conditions is it most likely that transnational criminal organizations choose to rely primarily on corruption versus violence in their illicit cross-border transactions, and under what conditions is it most likely that transnational criminal activities primarily influence individual security versus state security?
This constitutes the first major study showing (1) when corruption and violence are most likely to be used, (2) when transnational criminal activities are most likely to affect individual security and state security, and (3) when the negative consequences of these tactics and activities can be most successfully combated. The presumed sequence is that first transnational criminal organizations select tactics to use in their activities, and then these activities generate security impacts, and discerning the criminal choice of tactics and their security impacts relies more on tangible observable behavior rather than elusive underlying motivations.
At this juncture, one might well ask, Why is the distinction between the criminal tactics of corruption and violence worthy of investigation? Certainly it could be argued that, because both tactics represent unruly disruptive behavior, those wishing to combat transnational organized crime would incur an equal responsibility to minimize each, thus making fine distinctions between the two unnecessary (in the colloquial words of one defense analyst, "since both are bad, let's just stamp them both out"). As illustrated in later chapters, however, (1) the vulnerabilities that facilitate widespread criminal corruption are quite distinct from those that facilitate widespread criminal violence, (2) the targets for corruption differ markedly from the targets for violence, and, as a result, (3) the means for containing corruption differ markedly from the means for containing violence.
Similarly, one might ask, What is the rationale for differentiating between the influence of transnational organized crime on individual/human security and the influence of transnational organized crime on national/state security? One could readily assert that the most important issue—given the magnitude of the dangers involved—is to reduce the aggregate threat transnational organized crime poses with regard to any form of security, and that attempting to separate its impact on different types of security is like splitting hairs. Some analysts argue that, especially within democracies, promoting state security automatically enhances individual security, and most analysts of transnational organized crime make little distinction among different types of resulting security implications. Again, as discussed in later chapters, (1) the criminal threat to individual and societal well-being is vastly different from the criminal threat to government functioning; (2) the individual/human and national/state security impacts can occur in substantially different areas, taking advantage of different kinds of vulnerability and using substantially different disruptive techniques; and, consequently, (3) the means for protecting individual/human security are quite distinct from the means of protecting national/state security.
Because of the interconnections with broader security issues, this analysis emphasizes, wherever possible, how the patterns of transnational criminal use of corruption and violence tactics and individual/human and national/ state security impacts are both causes and consequences of other more widely studied recent global security transformations. In the end, any attempt to alter the modus operandi of transnational organized crime would require both a full understanding of these relationships and an ability and willingness to address and transform the key security parameters directly facilitating criminal behavior. It is worth noting at the outset that, on occasion, such willingness may necessitate compromising the principles embedded in enlightened liberal democratic values situated within an open globalized world.
Typical of a newly resurgent area of investigation, much existing research on transnational organized crime has been largely descriptive, serving primarily to outline the general scope and nature of the threat. Although these insights are important, as this unruly activity has evolved and proliferated, there is a need for much more refined and differentiated analysis. Despite their significance, little attention has focused on contrasting the transnational criminal tactics of corruption and violence: a few analyses scrutinize violence and corruption separately, without identifying when each tactic is selected; most studies of transnational organized crime simply give anecdotal evidence of the occurrence of the two activities across time, organizations, and locations, without identifying specific conditions under which each is likely to be chosen. Similarly, few existing publications carefully differentiate between the individual security impacts and the state security impacts of transnational organized crime, preferring instead simply to describe emerging dangers in broad general terms. Furthermore, relatively few studies carefully situate the challenges associated with transnational organized crime explicitly within the broader international security context. There is certainly considerable value in providing colorful illustrations of how transnational organized crime operates worldwide and generates threat; however, not identifying overarching patterns and conditions surrounding tactics and impacts, not linking these with broader security issues, and not providing differentiated policy prescriptions can inadvertently condemn victims and observers alike to passive acceptance of seemingly inevitable dangers.
RATIONALE FOR SELECTION OF THE CENTRAL QUESTION
This study analyzes transnational criminal tactics explicitly from a security perspective—rather than from the popular alternative perspectives of international political economy and public administration—because the criminal choice of corruption or violence in its most extreme form appears to have the most direct influence on individual, state, and global security and because these security impacts seem to be more important than any other consequences of criminal activity. In today's world, "when the situation deteriorates to a point at which criminal organizations can undermine a government's ability to govern, as in Italy, Russia, Colombia, and elsewhere, then the problem goes beyond a law-and-order [or economic] issue and becomes a national and international security concern." Given the frequency and severity within the last two decades of disruptive transnational criminal incidents, fears have intensified about the loss of protection and the potential coercive destruction of the political system, civil society norms, and persons and property. The disruptions generating these security-oriented fears appear to involve more far-reaching pernicious consequences—meriting both increased understanding and improved management—than those concerning economic downturns and disparities or administrative inefficiencies in carrying out essential functions. Nonetheless, even with its emphasis on security, this book makes a concerted effort to integrate insights from scholarly works approaching the topic from many different angles, in the process linking together especially the rather divergent perspectives of law enforcement and national defense.
Examining in detail the patterns of transnational organized crime's corruption and violence tactics and the resulting individual and state security impacts provides a unique lens—in many ways, a behind-the-scenes lightning rod—for analyzing today's global security dilemmas. Through this lens, one can grapple with fundamental security questions in international relations about the level and type of aggregate threat posed by (1) transnational organized crime in comparison to other unruly nonstate forces (such as terrorism), (2) disruptive nonstate groups in comparison to disruptive states (such as rogue states like Iran or North Korea), and, finally, (3) security challenges in the current international system in comparison with security challenges in previous global settings (such as that during the Cold War). This lens also permits analysis of the preparedness of targets vulnerable to transnational organized crime in comparison with targets vulnerable to other disruptive nonstate groups and to disruptive states or, alternatively, with targets in previous international systems. Placing the answers to this study's central question within this broader context of threat, vulnerability, and preparedness seems helpful to understand fully how the dynamics of transnational organized crime interrelate with those of other pressing security issues, especially how criminal dynamics influence and are influenced by other sources of disruption within international relations.
More specifically, exploring the central question highlights several fundamental conceptual controversies. These include (1) how the nature of sovereignty is changing in today's world; (2) how globalization can facilitate undesired transmissions across national boundaries; (3) how the increasingly intertwined nature of public and private authority structures has dramatically decreased accountability for the actions undertaken; (4) how government officials and private citizens often resist curtailing these unsanctioned transfers, revealing the moral murkiness in any condemnation; (5) how observers and participants alike find it troublesome to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate enterprise in a world embodying multiple contrasting value systems; (6) how restraining authorities find it difficult to separate narrow law-and-order concerns and broader defense concerns; (7) how backfire effects are likely if knee-jerk responses to illicit criminal cross-state transfers are undertaken; and (8) how the tight and growing links among disruptive transnational nonstate forces in international relations, especially between terrorists and criminals, make orderly management much more complicated. Together these issues create challenges for security policy that call for major analytical shifts and significant deviation from standard responses.
This study's central question also highlights the covert security vulnerabilities of potential transnational criminal targets. Unlike a conventional military threat, transnational organized crime undermines the physical security of countries—including the economic, cultural, and political dimensions—in ways that are largely invisible until the intrusion is well advanced and difficult to reverse: "Rather like some diseases in the early stages, a response is easy but detection is difficult; when detection becomes easier, the cure is much more difficult." Because vulnerabilities are so multifaceted and intertwined with normal societal interaction patterns, they are frequently quite difficult to pinpoint and overcome.
More broadly, the study sheds light on how nonstate sources of insecurity work today within and across states. When does transnational organized crime work in a top-down (affecting first society and then government) versus a bottom-up (affecting first government and then society) manner? When does this phenomenon operate well within and radically outside of prevailing security norms? The answers to these questions shed more light on exactly how transnational disruptions function within the current global security environment and how those vulnerable to such disruptions should prepare for them.
Finally, this study reinforces the need to consider underground cross-border activities to discern what is really transpiring in the world today. For example, looking at published trade figures dealing with legitimate businesses transporting well-accepted commodities misses the boat on much of what really drives the global economy and what really creates security disruptions within affected societies. It is somewhat puzzling that so many international relations analysts look only at aboveboard international transactions representing blatant threats when so much significant activity goes on beneath the surface in the world with such a monumental influence on global trends.
IMPEDIMENTS TO INVESTIGATING THE CENTRAL QUESTION
Despite its overall importance, three primary obstacles impede investigation of this study's central question: the absence of hard data, the difficulty of defining transnational criminal activities, and the ambiguity in attempting to isolate transnational criminals and their organizations. Although such obstacles are not unique to this topic, the elusive nature of transnational organized crime amplifies the challenges involved considerably. Together these three impediments have created chaos in much existing research on transnational organized crime, fostering "many inaccuracies, simplifications, exaggerations, and misconceptions."
First, unreliable information surrounds transnational organized crime. Firsthand accounts are unrepresentative and tainted with bias and subjectivity, and broad impersonal generalizations are overly sweeping and do not capture the subtle distinctions among groups or their activities. Even with completely impartial researchers, the results from direct interviews with transnational criminals are of questionable value because of open questions about the credibility—and intentional use of deception—of the people being interviewed. There are no reliable aggregate data—qualitative or quantitative—on the global pattern of transnational criminal behavior. Little crosschecking or accountability exists when nobody has a systematic way of verifying claims. For example, estimates of the revenues or profits of different kinds of criminal activities vary widely. Both law enforcement groups and the criminals themselves closely guard data relevant to transnational organized crime. The reality that both those engaged in this illicit activity and those attempting to restrain it are opposed to transparency—for differing reasons— creates a nearly insurmountable obstacle for those attempting to investigate the subject.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Dark Logic by Robert Mandel Copyright © 2011 by Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of Stanford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: The Central Question 1
2 Transnational Organized Crime's Changing Threat 15
3 Corruption/Violence and Individual/State Security 41
4 Major Transnational Criminal Organizations 66
5 Major Transnational Criminal Activities 91
6 Analysis of Case Patterns 127
7 Links between Transnational Criminals and Terrorists 145
8 Conclusion: Policy Implications 162
Notes 197
Bibliography 229
Index 251