Gangster’s Paradise
The Untold History of the United States and International Crime
Article Summary and Author Biography
Despite media hoopla, cross-border crime -- illegal drugs sales, evasion of taxes, intellectual property theft, and money laundering -- is hardly a new phenomenon. For much of history, moreover, the United States was as much perpetrator as victim. Recognizing this awkward truth should help cool down overheated debates about today’s transnational problems and how to respond to them.
PETER ANDREAS is Professor of Political Science and Interim Director of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. This essay is adapted from his new book, Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Essay
Around the world, criminal organizations and governments are fusing to an unprecedented degree, blurring the distinction between national interests and what suits the gangsters. Mafia states enjoy the unhealthy advantages of their hybrid status: they’re as nimble as gangs and as well protected as governments, and thus more dangerous than either.
Comment
Given that Chinese counterfeiting has benefits as well as costs, and considering China’s historical resistance to Western pressure, trying to push China to change its approach to intellectual property law is not worth the political and diplomatic capital the United States is spending on it.
The dark underside of the global economy is thriving. Globalization has been good not only for legitimate businesses but also for those who traffic in illegal drugs, evade sanctions or taxes, trade stolen goods and intellectual property on the black market, smuggle immigrants, and launder money. Some of these activities are merely policing headaches. But others pose major security challenges to governments around the world.
These various illegal activities are often lumped together and categorized as global or transnational organized crime. According to a 2011 White House report, such crime has “dire implications for public safety, public health, democratic institutions, and economic stability.” That sentiment is shared by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which in 2010 declared that “organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world’s foremost economic and armed powers.” Illicit trade has become a source of tension between major powers, as well: U.S. officials berate China for not doing more to prevent intellectual piracy and counterfeiting. Pundits have also sounded the alarm, fretting over the potential for international crime to cause conflict between states and perhaps even erode the foundation of the modern state itself. The journalist Moisés Naím, for example, describes efforts to curb cross-border crime as “wars of globalization” and argues that governments are losing the battle.
This anxious rhetoric has spurred governments to tighten controls and plug leaky borders, with Washington leading the way. In recent decades, the United States has aggressively and successfully exported its crime-fighting agenda and promoted its favored antismuggling practices abroad through bilateral agreements and multilateral initiatives. The State Department even hands out annual report cards grading countries on how well they are doing in fighting human trafficking and the international drug trade, with many countries scrambling to at least project an image of progress and compliance...
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