Wednesday, 20 June 2012  Global Crime II: Powerful illegalities
by Markus Schultze-Kraft  Much has been said and written in the
past two decades about the unprecedented rise of organized crime
and criminal violence in the Global South or the 'post-
colony' in the wake of the Cold War.  In the Andes, Central
America and Mexico, and in West and Southern Africa, the
Balkans, Russia and South and Central Asia, violent crime is
often perceived as threatening democratic governance,
development and the state – and even the international system.
Surfing on the wave of globalization, local-global networks
trafficking in illicit drugs, guns, humans, political resources
and nuclear material - among many other commodities - have been
identified as being responsible for fostering violent conflict,
state fragility, corruption, terrorism and coups d’état and for
inhibiting development.  Crime, illegality and the violence they
create are serious threats to societies and states around the
world. And the threat is by no means