Books - February 14, 2012

Termites at Work: Transnational Organized Crime and State Erosion in Kenya—Comprehensive Research Findings

The threat posed by organized crime is not confined to serious crimes such as racketeering, the global drug trade, or human trafficking. For many developing countries and fragile states, powerful transnational criminal networks constitute a direct threat to the state itself, not through open confrontation but by penetrating state institutions through bribery and corruption and by subverting or undermining them from within. This paper examines whether Kenya faces such a threat.  

Policy Papers - October 28, 2011

Know Your Enemy: An Overview of Organized Crime Threat Assessments

There is increasing awareness within police forces and international organizations that organized crime is a growing threat to security. However, due to a lack of data and insufficient knowledge about illicit activities, criminal justice experts are often left chasing shadows.  

Books - October 12, 2011

Peace Operations and Organized Crime: Enemies or Allies?

Peace operations are increasingly on the front line in the international community’s fight against organized crime. This book explores how, in some cases, peace operations and organized crime are clear enemies, while in others, they may become tacit allies.  

Meeting Notes - January 04, 2011

IPI Publication Reviews UN Transnational Crime Convention

Ten years have passed since the adoption of the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention) by the UN General Assembly on November 15, 2000.  

Policy Papers - October 14, 2009

Drug Trafficking Through West Africa

An invisible tide is rising on the shores of West Africa, creeping into its slums, its banks, its courts, its barracks, and its government ministries.  

Policy Papers - January 20, 2009

Transnational Organized Crime: IPI Blue Paper no. 2

The paper highlights how states and international organizations so far have largely failed to anticipate the evolution of transnational organized crime (TOC) into a strategic threat to governments, societies, and economies.  

Meeting Notes - April 14, 2008

Peace Operations and Organised Crime

Drawn from a seminar jointly convened by the International Peace Institute and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, this paper explores the relationship between organized crime and international peace operations al hitherto largely neglected area of both scholarly and practitioner-led discourse.  

Policy Papers - April 14, 2007

Transnational Organized Crime: Multilateral Responses to a Rising Threat

From the Introduction: As the violent forms of authority buttressed by organized crime corrupt and penetrate state, social and international institutions, gaining increasing control over territory, markets and populations, we risk not only a crisis of state and international institutions, but also institutionalizing crisis.

Policy Papers - February 14, 2007

Latin America and the Caribbean: Domestic and Transnational Insecurity

This paper will examine the two key axes of Latin American security dynamics: on the one hand, weak governance and citizen insecurity; and on the other, transnational organized crime and illicit flows.

Policy Papers - November 14, 2005

Securing the Rule of Law: Assessing International Strategies for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice

The past dozen years have seen a proliferation of international efforts to strengthen national criminal justice systems in postconflict countries. Part of the burgeoning of discourses, policies, and programs