Description
Any newspaper, anywhere in the world, any day, carries about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods. The global nature of the conflicts over these issues was unimaginable just a decade ago, and yet despite the unprecedented resources - financial, human, institutional, technological - that governments are now deploying against the traffickers, illicit trade continues to boom. These newly globalised wars pit governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator for murder and mayhem.ILLICIT reveals the full scale of this underground world. It uncovers the inner workings of the networks of illegal industries and shows the new realities that make them so successful and difficult to defeat. How do pirated movies or CDs find their way to illegal markets worldwide even before they are released? Who manufactures the knock-off Rolex sold for $20? Why is marijuana ever easier to find in schools and universities? Who is behind the illegal immigrants found suffocated to death in the backs of lorries? The answers to these seemingly unrelated questions provide clues to major mutations of world politics and economics.
Clear, provocative and lively, ILLICIT is a crucially timely book that reveals the dark underside of our globalised world and unveils its new political landscape.
ISBN:9780434013500
