Transnational Organized Crime: Multilateral Responses to a Rising Threat

Coping with Crisis Working Paper Series

28 Pages Posted: 21 Aug 2007

See all articles by James Cockayne

James Cockayne

Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation

Date Written: April 2007

Abstract

The author identifies a growing short-fall in capacities to control the threat posed by transnational organized crime (TOC). TOC exploits the 'sovereign-free' areas of the international system - such as war zones, the internet and private bank accounts - slowly corrupting state, social and global systems of governance. Depending on the nature of the weaknesses in governance it encounters, and on its own strategy (symbiotic, parasitic or predatory), TOC fuels and spreads various public harms, from corruption to armed conflict to disease. Multilateral response capacity remains highly fragmented, as states jealously guard their crime control competences, a central component of their sovereign power. Cockayne argues that this risks ceding increasing control of global markets, population and territory to TOC. But he also suggests that effective multilateral crime control is achievable through the development of harmonized norms and coordination frameworks, complementary international enforcement capacity, and peer review and sanctions mechanisms designed to improve the integration of state and private sector crime control capacity worldwide.

Keywords: organized crime, transnational organized crime, United Nations, Interpol, drug trafficking, civil war, crime control

Suggested Citation

Cockayne, James, Transnational Organized Crime: Multilateral Responses to a Rising Threat (April 2007). Coping with Crisis Working Paper Series, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1008168 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1008168

James Cockayne (Contact Author)

Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation ( email )

801 Second Avenue
13th floor
New York, NY 10017
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.globalct.org

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