In this article I present a theoretical-methodological proposal, which allowed meto analyze how the Colombian State is discursively constructedas a criminal State in a narrative sequence, extracted ...from the chapter: “Másallá de los fusiles: garrotes y machetes.Masacre del 21 de febrero de 2005” from the book of Catholic priestJavier Giraldo Moreno entitled: Fusil o Toga Toga y Fusil.El Estado contra la Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó(2010). Likewise, in this sub-corpusI investigatethe enunciative device and the different strategies used by Father Giraldo, at the levels of the text, gender, discourse and social practice to give plausibility to the aforementioned thesis and credibility to the voices that support it.
Purpose
In North Korea, illicit activities directly or implicitly supported by the North Korean Government are an integral part of the nation’s survival strategies. This study aims to discuss how ...North Korea directs its national power and resources to facilitate narcotics trafficking activities and how the role of North Korean State in the narcotics trafficking network has changed over time since the 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of narcotics trafficking in North Korea has primarily involved a review of secondary data, including previous academic research in this field, news articles, circumstantial and forensic evidence, seizure data and defector testimony.
Findings
This paper argues that prior to 2000, North Korea was systematically and directly engaged in narcotics production and distribution. The nation state could be regarded as a form of “criminal sovereignty”, because the sovereign state is itself criminal. However, in the post-2000s, North Korea’s Government began to gradually withdraw from narcotics trafficking, creating space for various non-state actors – such as criminal syndicates, private traders and local officials – to enter the once-monopolistic network. De-centralisation of narcotics trafficking network in North Korea suggests that the state’s criminal sovereignty may be gradually eroding and the pattern of state criminalisation in North Korea may be transforming.
Originality/value
This paper draws on theories concerning state criminalisation to understand the changing dynamics of narcotics trafficking network in North Korea.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the shift away from the traditional distinction between organised crime and terrorist groups towards their conceptual convergence under the crime-terror nexus ...narrative in the context of international security and development policy in post-Soviet Central Asia. It assesses the empirical basis for the crime-terror and state-crime nexus in three Central Asian countries – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and argues that the exclusion of the state from the analytical framework undermines the relevance of the crime-terror paradigm for policy-making.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on a literature review of academic research, recent case studies highlighting new empirical evidence in Central Asia and international policy publications.
Findings
There is a weak empirical connection between organised crime and Islamic extremists, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizbut Tahrir, in Central Asia. The state-crime paradigm, including concepts of criminal capture, criminal sovereignty and criminal penetration, hold more explanatory power for international policy in Central Asia. The crime-terror paradigm has resulted in a narrow and ineffective security-oriented law enforcement approach to counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism but does not address the underlying weak state governance structures and political grievances that motivate organised crime and terrorist groups respectively.
Originality/value
International policy and scholarship is currently focussed on the areas of convergence between organised crime and terrorist groups. This paper highlights the continued relevance of the traditional conceptual separation of terrorist and organised crime groups based on their different motives, methods and relationship with the state, for security and democratic governance initiatives in the under-researched Central Asian region.
Background Mainstream news media play an important role in the political system. For instance, they can use their authoritative voices to give legitimacy to regimes. In contrast, the fringe press is ...easily identified by its often outrageous partisanship. Fringe media such as Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer and Rwanda’s Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines usually have no credibility with non-partisan audiences.Analysis Mainstream media, because of their own credibility, can give credibility to criminal states. Analysis of the historical record shows that mainstream media escape prosecution in the rare cases where they are called to account for underpinning state criminality. Conclusions and implications This article discusses the prosecution of the fringe partisan press for acting as propagandists for criminal states, while more “credible” mainstream journalists escape prosecution. Contexte Les médias d’information grand public jouent un rôle important dans les systèmes politiques. Par exemple, ils peuvent utiliser leur autorité pour légitimer certains gouvernements. À l’inverse, on reconnaît facilement les médias marginaux à leur partisanerie parfois outrancière. Normalement, des médias marginaux comme Der Stürmer de Julius Streicher et Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines au Rwanda n’ont aucune crédibilité auprès de publics non-partisans.Analyse Les médias grand public, à cause de leur propre crédibilité, peuvent prêter une certaine crédibilité aux états criminels. Par surcroît, une analyse historique montre que ces médias, dans les quelques cas où on leur demande de rendre compte de leurs actions, sont rarement poursuivis en justice pour leur appui d’un état criminel.Conclusions et implications Cet article discute de poursuites judiciaires envers la presse marginale ayant fait de la propagande pour un état criminel, dans des circonstances où l’on épargnerait normalement les journalistes traditionnels dits « crédibles. »
Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) - commonly called drug cartels - are challenging states and their institutions in increasingly brutal and profound ways. This is seen dramatically in Mexico's ...drug wars and the expanding reach of Mexican organized criminal enterprises throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. This essay updates a 1998 paper 'Cartel Evolution: Potentials and Consequences' and examines current cartel and gang interactions. The paper links discussion of cartel phases to gang generations; updates and applies the discussion of third phase cartel potentials to Mexico; and assesses four alternative futures for Mexico, as well as their cross-border implications for the United States.
Criminal-States and Criminal-Soldiers present unique problems for contemporary international political theory. This essay examines the applicability of the theory of war developed by Carl von ...Clausewitz to Criminal-States and Criminal-Soldiers. As modified by Aristotle's idea of justice as the basis for the political community, this essay proposes that Clausewitz's famous connection between politics and war holds where such states and soldiers evince political behavior. Some contrasting implications for states and state leaders are examined when such entities evince - and do not evince - political behavior.
Defining Criminal-states Bunker, Robert J.; Bunker, Pamela L.
Global crime,
20/8/1/, Volume:
7, Issue:
3-4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Governmental views on belligerent and near-belligerent states are discussed along with evolving US terms for these dangerous states. The post 9/11 security environment requires the recognition of a ...new form of dangerous state - the 'Criminal-state' a by-product of belligerent non-state entities and their networks at war with the nation-state form. Four criminal-state forms originating from Jihadi insurgency, state failure-lawless zones, external criminal takeover, and oligarchic regimes are then highlighted. Until the new security environment is openly recognized as merging with global criminality, and the fact that it contains highly adaptive 'small, fast, and ruthless' challengers to the nation-state form accepted, our ability to fully define the new threat of 'Criminal-states', highlighted in this essay, will be impeded.
Criminal-states and Criminal-soldiers are two interrelated threats that challenge order and stability at local, national, and potentially global levels. Policing and law enforcement are essential to ...securing the conditions necessary for stable governance and preserving the rule of law. Law enforcement and police services play key roles in ensuring community stability. They also control and contain criminal threats, protect individual liberties, and enable other political and diplomatic processes to function. This afterward examines the role of police and enforcement agencies in countering the threats posed by criminal-soldiers in order to prevent the establishment or spread of criminal-states.
This book examines how the democratic process and social trust shape penal sanctioning in the United States. The research shows that higher levels of civic engagement tend to support milder ...punishments whereas lower levels tend to support more coercive criminal justice policies. The book challenges a taken‐for‐granted assumption about the democratic process and punishment. It shows that the apparent link between public participation, punitiveness, and harsh justice is not only historically contingent but dependent on specific institutional contexts and patterns of civic engagement, patterns that tend to vary within the United States and across liberal democracies. But perhaps more importantly, the research suggests the opposite relationship: increased democratization can support and sustain less coercive penal regimes. By comparing state‐level imprisonment variation and state‐level democratic traditions, this book highlights the importance of place, locality, and context in a globalizing social world.
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