The Illicit Global Economy and State Power

Illicit cross-border flows, such as the smuggling of drugs, migrants, weapons, toxic waste, and dirty money, are proliferating on a global scale. This underexplored, clandestine side of globalization has emerged as an increasingly important source of conflict and cooperation among nation-states, state agents, nonstate actors, and international organizations. Contrary to scholars and policymakers who claim a general erosion of state power in the face of globalization, this pathbreaking volume of original essays explores the selective nature of the state's retreat, persistence, and reassertion in relation to the illicit global economy.

Illicit cross-border flows, such as the smuggling of drugs, migrants, weapons, toxic waste, and dirty money, are proliferating on a global scale. This underexplored, clandestine side of globalization has emerged as an increasingly important source of conflict and cooperation among nation-states, state agents, nonstate actors, and international organizations. Contrary to scholars and policymakers who claim a general erosion of state power in the face of globalization, this pathbreaking volume of original essays explores the selective nature of the stateOs retreat, persistence, and reassertion in relation to the illicit global economy. It fills a gap in the international political economy literature and offers a new and powerful lens through which to examine core issues of concern to international relations scholars: the changing nature of states and markets, the impact of globalization across place and issue areas, and the sources of cooperation and conflict.

Chapter 1 Introduction: International Relations and the Illicit Global Economy
Chapter 2 Transnational Organized Crime: The New Authoritarianism
Chapter 3 State Power and the Regulation of Illicit Activity in Global Finance
Chapter 4 The Illicit Trade in Hazardous Waste and CFCs: International Responses to Environmental Bads
Chapter 5 When Policies Collide: Market Reform, Market Prohibition, and the Narcotization of the Mexican Economy
Chapter 6 The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy: U.S. Drug Policy and Colombian State Stability
Chapter 7 Obstructing Markets: Organized Crime Networks and Drug Control in Japan