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List of contents
Introduction – Transnational organised crime and terrorism: different peas, same pod? 1. Catch Me If You Can: or how policy networks help tackle the crime–terror nexus 2. Transnational organised crime and terrorism: Nexus needing a human security framework 3. Categorising the crime–terror nexus in the European Union 4. Jihadi networks and the involvement of vulnerable immigrants: reconsidering the ideological and pragmatic value 5. Breaking the nexus: conceptualising ‘illicit sovereigns’ A study of the relation between the Sicilian Mafia and the Italian state 6. Islamist movements in the Fergana Valley: a new threat assessment approach 7. Crime, terror and the state in Central Asia 8. The nexus between terrorism and product counterfeiting in the United States
About the author
Helena Carrapico is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on European security, with a particular focus on cyber security and cyber-crime.
Daniela Irrera is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Catania, Italy. Her research focuses on the crime-terror nexus and its implications for global security policies, in particular those of the European Union.
Bill Tupman is Visiting Professor in Criminal Justice at BPP University, UK, and Honorary University fellow, at the University of Exeter, UK. His research interests focus on transnational crime, terrorism and police responses.
Summary
The nexus between terrorism and organised crime consists of a strategic alliance between two non-state actors who are able to exploit illegal markets, threaten the security of individuals, and influence policy-making on a global level. Recent Europol reports have pointed towards the importance of studying the links between organised crime and terrorist groups, and have underlined that the nature and extent of these connections have seldom been addressed from an academic perspective. Considering the danger that both organised crime and terrorism currently pose to the world, the collusion between these two phenomena is of urgent contemporary interest.
Basing itself on geographical case-studies, this book contributes to the existing literature in three ways: by enriching the empirical knowledge on the nature of the crime-terror nexus and its evolution; by exploring the impact of the nexus within different economic, political and societal contexts; and by expanding on its theoretical conceptualization. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Crime.
