Crime And Conflict Nexus Analysis

The crime and conflict nexus exist and its existence matters because it affects the utility of both organizations making them more lethal. This increase in lethality has a negative affect an international security making it very important. With that, there are still ways in which law enforcement and policy makers can combat this nexus.

A crime and conflict nexus is very important seeing that it increases the utility of both organizations while putting them closer to obtaining their goal. These connections between the two groups affect individual and state security in drastic ways. Louise I. Shelley, author of Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism analyses six major terrorist attacks over the past two decades, including nine-eleven

and the Madrid train bombings of two thousand and four.

She argues that these major terrorist events would not have been successful without the use of crime. She goes further to say that crime and corruption facilitates terrorism. Here you see that terrorist use crime and corruption to increase their utility, which resulted in grave terrorist attacks. As far as crime goes, we see that their use in terror tactics are detrimental to states as well. In the article; “The Logic of Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico”, the use of terror tactics by Mexican cartels as a way of constraining the state was explored. The author argued that violence is used as a medium to create a cooperative target, in furthering this notion we find that the there is a positive

correlation between violence exerted by criminal organizations and interference of law enforcement. Meaning, an increase law enforcement targeting a criminal organization, also increases the violence that the organization uses to create a cooperative target. Scholar Viridiana Rios termed this phenomenon a self-reinforcing violent equilibrium. Here we find that the sharing of tactics increases the affectivity of these organizations and also attributes to their lethality, which is why the crime and conflict nexus is important. These connections between the two groups affect individual and state security in drastic ways and begs the question of why these organizations have came about.
In an article written by Steven Hutchison and Pat O’Malley’s in two thousand and seven, entitled; “A Crime-Terror Nexus? Thinking On Some of the links between terrorism and criminality”, we find that some terrorist organizations have created “in house” criminal capabilities, due to the decrease in state sponsorship, in order to generate revenue for their operations. According to authors Giraldo and Trinkunas, this new method of financing is the biggest indicator of the mercilessness of new terrorism, the change in financing changed their behavior. Here you find that a decrease in state sponsorship in terrorist groups attributed to the lethality we see in newer organization. We also know that globalization has broaden the reach of criminal organization which is necessary for what authors Sullivan and Bunkers argued is the third phase of a cartel as a criminal state in there two thousand and two piece. Within this stage a criminal organization has to be organized, transnational, and entrenched in corruption with global economic reach, with the use of discriminate violence. The end of the Cold war and globalization created a plethora of pathways in which terrorist and criminal organization can grow, coupled with the nexus that was previously mention we have to wonder what the consequences are to international security. Robert Mandel’s two thousand and ten book, Dark Logic, argues that corruption weakens the utility of the state while violence comes in to destroys it. This has major effects on the security of the state and the individuals within. This is done by decreasing a states ability to protect it citizens, and when citizens are not protected by the state, the look for alternatives, such as the criminal or terrorist who are the cause of the loss of strength of the state.
With what we have learned it seems as though this nexus will be impossible to combat, but that is not true.

Terrorist and criminal organization have internal problems that can be exploited by law enforcement and policy makers. Form author Nikos Passas we understand that terrorist organization have a lot of different methods of funding, including crime and charities. According to Passas the best way to combat this is to increase transparency and traceability in economic transactions, which was also concluded by author Jonas R. Want in his article discussing the regulation of Hawala. By doing this globally we can combat the financing of terrorist and criminal groups by having better knowledge of the movement of their money. According to author William Phil’s two thousand and seven peace, following the money is the most powerful tool in combating illegal financial transactions. The argument is supported by an Bichler, Bushes, and Malm’s article that states that understanding the market system in which criminal organizations operate is necessary when identifying the key players and mechanisms used. Overall, strengthening financial transaction transparency will help law enforcement combat both terrorist and criminal organization which will have great affects on both organizations

utility.
In conclusion, the crime and conflict nexus exist, it increases the lethality of organization, regardless of the motivations and has a great affect on states and individual security. Whether or not a terrorist and criminal organization will fully converge and whether or not the different ideological motivations affect this likelihood does not matter. Partial convergence or borrowing of tactics has been found to be quite lethal in itself. Though terrorist’s organizations are ideologically motivated and want to control the state while criminal organizations are motivated by money and want to constrain the state, they both use the same mediums to achieve their goals. With that being said, there are still ways in which law enforcement and policy makers can combat this nexus, especially when focusing on the financing of the organizations.