Peace Operations and Organized Crime

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. The threat posed by organized crime to international and human security has become a matter of considerable strategic concern for national and international decision-makers, so it is somewhat surprising how little thought has been devoted to addressing the complex relationship between organized crime and peace operations. This volume addresses this gap, questioning the emerging orthodoxy that portrays organized crime as an external threat to the liberal peace championed by western and allied states and delivered through peace operations. Based upon a series of case studies it concludes that organized crime is both a potential enemy and a potential ally of peace operations, and it argues for the need to distinguish between strategies to contain organized crime and strategies to transform the political economies in which it flourishes. The editors argue for the development of intelligent, transnational, and transitional law enforcement that can make the most of organized crime as a potential ally for transforming political economies, while at the same time containing the threat it presents as an enemy to building effective and responsible states. The book will be of great interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, organised crime, Security Studies and IR in general.

James Cockayne is Co-Director of the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation in New York. He has worked with governmental, business and civil society partners around the world on responses to armed non-state actors. Adam Lupel is Editor at the International Peace Institute, New York. He has a PhD in Political Theory from the New School for Social Research, New York, and is the author of Globalization and Popular Sovereignty: Democracy's Transnational Dilemma (Routledge, 2009).

1. Introduction: Rethinking the Relationship between Peace Operations and Organized Crime James Cockayne and Adam Lupel 2. Framing the Issue: UN Responses to Corruption and Criminal Networks in Postconflict Settings Victoria K. Holt and Alix J. Boucher 3. Symbiosis between Peace Operations and Illicit Business in Bosnia Peter Andreas 4. Problems of Crime Fighting by 'Internationals' in Kosovo Cornelius Friesendorf 5. Understanding Criminality in West African Conflicts William Reno 6. Peace Operations and International Crime: The Case of Somalia Roland Marchal 7. Organized Crime, Illicit Power Structures, and Threatened Peace Processes: The Case of Guatemala Patrick Gavigan 8. Winning Haiti's Protection Competition: Organized Crime and Peace Operations Past, Present, and Future James Cockayne 9. Counterinsurgents in the Poppy Fields: Drugs, Wars, and Crime in Afghanistan Vanda Felbab-Brown 10. Organized Crime and Corruption in Iraq Phil Williams 11. Closing the Gap between Peace Operations and Postconflict Insecurity: Towards a Violence Reduction Agenda Robert Muggah and Keith Krause 12. Conclusion: From Iron Fist to Invisible Hand - Peace Operations, Organized Crime, and Intelligent International Law Enforcement James Cockayne and Adam Lupel