Transnational Organised Crime as a Multi-level Actor in Global Politics

Transnational organised crime is undoubtedly perceived as a dangerous security threat, which has had an extensive impact at different levels of society. The political and academic consensus, however, stops here, as the path towards a common definition and shared policies and strategies seems to be very long and troubled. Any serious and competent discussion on transnational organized crime - aiming at being also policy-oriented – should consider a large set of variables (ability to perform at a global level, mobility, organizational capacity), several actors (convergence with terrorism, paramilitaries, corrupted state officials and representatives), several levels of action (economics, society, virtual space, politics), and of governance (national, bilateral and multilateral cooperation). The Section wishes to explore these variables further by analyzing the different levels of impact of transnational organized crime: the international level, the regional level, and the local level. The Section welcomes empirical and theoretically informed Panels and Papers focusing on this multi-level approach, as well as on policy responses.