Tackling Africa's First Narco-State

Tackling Africa's First Narco-State PDF Author: U. S. Army U.S. Army War College
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781505563009
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description
The U.S., Europe and regional African players must tackle drug smuggling in West Africa to prevent that region from falling into chaos. Today, West Africa is a significant nexus for the illegal trafficking of oil, weapons, cigarettes, drugs and other commodities. The United States has labeled Guinea-Bissau Africa's first narco-state and it has become the epicenter of a region where Transnational Criminal Organizations are corrupting governments and societies at an alarming rate. Their nefarious efforts, and Guinea-Bissau's state failure, conflict with U.S. stated interests. Tackling corruption, neutralizing spoilers, and increasing the societies' culture of lawfulness are necessary steps to save West Africa. This will be challenging in Guinea-Bissau due to geography, culture, government structure, and a corrupted military. But with the right adjustments to resources, authorities and priorities, it can be done

Tackling Africa's First Narco-State

Tackling Africa's First Narco-State PDF Author: U. S. Army U.S. Army War College
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781505563009
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Get Book Here

Book Description
The U.S., Europe and regional African players must tackle drug smuggling in West Africa to prevent that region from falling into chaos. Today, West Africa is a significant nexus for the illegal trafficking of oil, weapons, cigarettes, drugs and other commodities. The United States has labeled Guinea-Bissau Africa's first narco-state and it has become the epicenter of a region where Transnational Criminal Organizations are corrupting governments and societies at an alarming rate. Their nefarious efforts, and Guinea-Bissau's state failure, conflict with U.S. stated interests. Tackling corruption, neutralizing spoilers, and increasing the societies' culture of lawfulness are necessary steps to save West Africa. This will be challenging in Guinea-Bissau due to geography, culture, government structure, and a corrupted military. But with the right adjustments to resources, authorities and priorities, it can be done

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau PDF Author: U. S. Military
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781980746829
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
This book examines the deep problems faced by the African nation of Guinea-Bissau. A string of crises stretching back more than a decade has rendered Guinea-Bissau one of the most fragile states in Africa. This recurring cycle of political violence, instability, and incapacitated governance, moreover, has accelerated in recent years, most notably following a military coup in April 2012. Exploiting this volatility, trafficking networks have coopted key political and military leaders and transformed Guinea-Bissau into a hub for illicit commerce, particularly the multibillion dollar international trade in cocaine. This has directly contributed to instability in Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa. European and African organized criminal groups have likewise established ties to the Guinea-Bissau trade. Drawn by the lucrative revenues, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other militant groups in West Africa have also been linked to Guinea-Bissau trafficking. Now commonly referred to as Africa's first narco-state, Guinea-Bissau has become a regional crossroads of instability. Responses to Guinea-Bissau's bouts of crises, however, have tended to be short lived and neglect the country's deep institutional weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Clashes within the military, coups d'etat, and strings of politically motivated killings have been met with condemnation from regional and international partners followed by calls for investigations or a transitional election-but with few genuine reforms. Oftentimes many of the perpetrators of Guinea-Bissau's crises retain or even expand their influence and stature. Meanwhile, economic growth has been episodic, human development indicators have been stagnant, and a humanitarian emergency imperiling 300,000 people looms. Given the sensational nature of these crises, root drivers of instability are consistently overlooked, including a political system marked by the concentration of authority in the executive branch and a security sector that has gradually expanded its involvement in politics. As a result, crises inevitably reemerge. While narcotics traffickers initially targeted Guinea-Bissau because of its weak oversight and governance capacity, the drug trade has dramatically compounded these drivers of instability while spawning others. Despite Guinea-Bissau's serious challenges, some groundwork for reform has been laid by the country's emerging civil society actors and democratic institutions. An independent media sector, several prominent and well-organized human rights groups, an improved police force, and a national legislature that has on occasion demonstrated its influence, represent a potentially vital reform network. These civil society actors and independent reformers are under growing pressure from the increasingly emboldened military and political leadership that has captured escalating trafficking revenues, however. Executive Summary * A Worsening Cycle of Crises and Regional Spillover * Politicization of the Military * Winner Take All * Guns, Drugs, and Illicit Resources * Competition Drawn Along Ethnic Lines * Distrusted International Partners * Analysis: From Fragile States to Narco-States * Recommendations * Political and Governance Reforms * Dealing with the Past * Depoliticization of the Military * Reversing the Narco-State * Pressuring Spoilers * Empowering Civil Society and Independent Media * Harmonizing International Approaches * Conclusion

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau PDF Author: Africa Strategic Africa Strategic Studies Institute (U.S.)
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160937101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
This report takes an in-depth look at how the global drug trade has turned the West African nation into a crossroads of instability. Over the past decade, interdiction efforts in the Americas coupled with strong market forces in Europe have resulted in a growing transit of cocaine and other narcotics from Latin America across the Atlantic to West Africa and then into Europe. The report identifies three inter-woven trends that have contributed significantly to Guinea-Bissau's crises: First, a significant deterioration in civil-military relations over the last decade has led to increased political meddling by military officers, fragmentation within the security forces, and a sharp decline in military professionalism, according to the report. Second, a disproportionate concentration of power residing in the presidency has led to intense and oftentimes unproductive competition for control over the Office of the President. Finally, the rise of the narcotics trade in Guinea-Bissau has exacerbated many of the country's governance problems. "[T]he drug trade has amplified the level of instability in the country and refutes the common assumption that transshipment of drugs has a benign effect on the transited country." These events have directly contributed to instability in Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa. Meanwhile, emerging ethnic tensions, especially within the military, have complicated the country's cycle of crises. The report provides detailed recommendations for how to address Guinea-Bissau's complex challenges. The challenges faced by Guinea-Bissau, and the policies and strategies developed to address those challenges, provide valuable lessons for dealing with the challenges of narco-states emerging elsewhere on the continent.

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau

Advancing Stability and Reconciliation in Guinea-Bissau PDF Author: Davin O'Regan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil-military relations
Languages : en
Pages : 51

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Book Description
This report takes an in-depth look at how the global drug trade has turned the West African nation into a crossroads of instability. Over the past decade, interdiction efforts in the Americas coupled with strong market forces in Europe have resulted in a growing transit of cocaine and other narcotics from Latin America across the Atlantic to West Africa and then into Europe. The report identifies three inter-woven trends that have contributed significantly to Guinea-Bissau's crises: First, a significant deterioration in civil-military relations over the last decade has led to increased political meddling by military officers, fragmentation within the security forces, and a sharp decline in military professionalism, according to the report. Second, a disproportionate concentration of power residing in the presidency has led to intense and oftentimes unproductive competition for control over the Office of the President. Finally, the rise of the narcotics trade in Guinea-Bissau has exacerbated many of the country's governance problems. "[T]he drug trade has amplified the level of instability in the country and refutes the common assumption that transshipment of drugs has a benign effect on the transited country." These events have directly contributed to instability in Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa. Meanwhile, emerging ethnic tensions, especially within the military, have complicated the country's cycle of crises. The report provides detailed recommendations for how to address Guinea-Bissau's complex challenges. The challenges faced by Guinea-Bissau, and the policies and strategies developed to address those challenges, provide valuable lessons for dealing with the challenges of narco-states emerging elsewhere on the continent.

Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific

Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific PDF Author:
Publisher: UN
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Human trafficking and smuggling of migrants: Four of the 12 illicit flows reviewed in this report involve human beings. The first two concern movement between the countries of the region, one for general labour and one for sexual exploitation. The third concerns the smuggling of migrants from the region to the rich countries of the West, and the last focuses on migrants smuggled through the region from the poor and conflicted countries of South and Southwest Asia. Drug trafficking: The production and use of opiates has a long history in the region, but the main opiate problem in the 21st century involves the more refined form of the drug: heroin. In addition, methamphetamine has been a threat in parts of East Asia for decades (in the form of yaba tablets), but crystal methamphetamine has recently grown greatly in popularity. Virtually every country in the region has some crystal methamphetamine users, and some populations consume at very high levels.Resources: Resource-related crimes include those related to both extractive industries, such as the illegal harvesting of wildlife and timber, and other crimes that have a negative impact on the environment, such as the dumping of e-waste and the trade in ozone-depleting substances. In all cases, the threat goes beyond borders, jeopardizing the global environmental heritage. These are therefore crimes of inherent international significance, though they are frequently dealt with lightly under local legislation.Counterfeit goods: The trade in counterfeit goods is often perceived as a "soft" form of crime, but can have dangerous consequences for public health and safety. Fraudulent medicines in particular pose a threat to public health, and their use can foster the growth of treatment resistant pathogens.

Why Has West Africa Become a Nexus for the International Traffickers?

Why Has West Africa Become a Nexus for the International Traffickers? PDF Author: Yahya H. Affinnih
Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1685260942
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
This book is undoubtedly rich in different diverse sources and literature that are put together into a coherent whole instead of dispersed copious literature on the genesis of West African countries' integration into the world political economy and geopolitics of the drug trade. To the author's best knowledge, there is no similar book that has focused on the recent West Africa drug connection. The book is well-researched and documented. It fills the missing void in the discourse of West Africa drug trade arrangements. This book is one of its kind in the annals of West Africa's drug trade history. This thrust and the thesis of the book is to provide a plausible and sufficient explanation as to why West Africa has become international traffickers' transshipments and transits hubs and cocaine distribution and repackage centers for cocaine en route to Europe. This book is informative for a wide variety of readers such as students, social analysts from different social sciences disciplines, drug policy makers in West African countries, and elsewhere in the world. The book's subject matter is a global-wide problem that concerns all modern human societies worldwide. There are no human societies that are immune to the dynamics of the global drug trade industries that pose threat to human, national, and global security in its wake.

Organized Crime

Organized Crime PDF Author: Klaus von Lampe
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483310833
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
Organized Crime: Analyzing Illegal Activities, Criminal Structures, and Extra-legal Governance provides a systematic overview of the processes and structures commonly labeled “organized crime,” drawing on the pertinent empirical and theoretical literature primarily from North America, Europe, and Australia. The main emphasis is placed on a comprehensive classificatory scheme that highlights underlying patterns and dynamics, rather than particular historical manifestations of organized crime. Esteemed author Klaus von Lampe strategically breaks the book down into three key dimensions: (1) illegal activities, (2) patterns of interpersonal relations that are directly or indirectly supporting these illegal activities, and (3) overarching illegal power structures that regulate and control these illegal activities and also extend their influence into the legal spheres of society. Within this framework, numerous case studies and topical issues from a variety of countries illustrate meaningful application of the conceptual and theoretical discussion.

Cybercrime and Challenges in South Africa

Cybercrime and Challenges in South Africa PDF Author: Stanley Osezua Ehiane
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 981993057X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
The advent of the Internet for global advancement and development has opened the world to new crimes. This is the first comprehensive book on the subject matter, considering the absence of textbooks in teaching the subject matter in higher learning institutions. Hitherto, the book is distinctive and timely in the wake of the inclusion of the subject matter as a new curriculum in many African universities. The book focuses on South Africa, where the Internet has been misused by individuals to perpetuated crime which has been on the increase and unabated. The book's contents and its discourse are significant to students in higher institutions, researchers, and organizations, to give in-depth insights into varied cybercrime on various forms and the manners in which cybercrimes have been executed. Lastly, the book contains instances where the Internet has been used to perpetuate crimes in recent times in South Africa.

Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean

Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Organized crime
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
This report is one of several studies conducted by UNODC on organized crime threats around the world. These studies describe what is known about the mechanics of contraband trafficking - the what, who, how, and how much of illicit flows - and discuss their potential impact on governance and development. Their primary role is diagnostic, but they also explore the implications of these findings for policy. Publisher's note.

Votes, Drugs, and Violence

Votes, Drugs, and Violence PDF Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108899900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
One of the most surprising developments in Mexico's transition to democracy is the outbreak of criminal wars and large-scale criminal violence. Why did Mexican drug cartels go to war as the country transitioned away from one-party rule? And why have criminal wars proliferated as democracy has consolidated and elections have become more competitive subnationally? In Votes, Drugs, and Violence, Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley develop a political theory of criminal violence in weak democracies that elucidates how democratic politics and the fragmentation of power fundamentally shape cartels' incentives for war and peace. Drawing on in-depth case studies and statistical analysis spanning more than two decades and multiple levels of government, Trejo and Ley show that electoral competition and partisan conflict were key drivers of the outbreak of Mexico's crime wars, the intensification of violence, and the expansion of war and violence to the spheres of local politics and civil society.