Illicit : How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy

Author(s): Moises Naim

Current Affairs

Any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, carries news about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods. The global nature of this conflicts over these issues was unimaginable just over a decade ago, and yet the resources - financial, human, institutional, technological - deployed by the combatants have reached extraordinary levels of magnitude. So have the numbers of victims. These newly globalised wars pit governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator for murder and mayhem.
Illicit reveals the full scale of this underground world. It uncovers the inner workings of the networks of illegal industries and shows the new realities that make them so successful and difficult to defeat. How do pirated movies or CDEs find their way to illegal markets worldwide even before they are released? Who manufactures the knock-off roles sold for $20? Why is marjuana ever easier to find in schools and universities? Who is behind the illegal immigrants found suffocated to death in the backs of lorries? The answers to these seemingly unrelated questions provide clues to major mutations of world politics and economics. First published 2005.

39.99 NZD

Stock: 0


Add to Wishlist


Product Information

A provocative investigation of the impact of globalisation on crime that reveals the dark side of our globalised economy, showing how states and police forces are fighting a losing battle in their wars on the free movement of arms, drugs, people, intellectual property and money. 20041130

"* 'Moises Naim places much needed light on a hidden subject: how globalization fuels the growth of the international criminal enterprise. His is a compelling narrative of what has been happening around the world and what should be done about it.' John Deutch, former Director, CIA * 'Moises Naim has spotted that most crucial of things, a subject of increasing importance that is very poorly understood. The reporting and analysis he offers fills that gap admirably. His book should provoke much new thinking and, it is to be hoped, new action.' Bill Emmott, Editor, Economist * 'Moises Naim has Identified a key issue, the fact that political order is rapidly decaying in many parts of the world, and that this decay is brought on at least in part by the same factors that promote globalization: fast communications, inexpensive travel, and porous borders. Illicit is provocative reading that makes you see the world differently once you're done with it.' Francis Fukuyama"

For the last six years, Moises Naim has been editor and publisher of the influential journal Foreign Policy . Naim holds an MS and a PhD from MIT and was the minister of Trade and Industry in his native Venezuela, as well as an executive Director of the World Bank. Since 1989, he has been a forum fellow at the World Economic Forum and an advisor to its annual meeting in Davos. This is his first general trade book.

General Fields

  • : 9780434013500
  • : wilhei
  • : wilhei
  • : 0.465
  • : 05 January 2006
  • : 250mm X mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Moises Naim
  • : Paperback
  • : 364.1068
  • : 352