PUBLICATIONS & DOWNLOADS
SELECT RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Terrorism, Conflict, and Ivory Trafficking: Myth & Reality
Italian Institute for International Political Studies (2018)
The relationship between conflict and terrorism and ivory trafficking is often poorly understood. This article examines some of the realties underpinning this relationship, and calls for greater cross-sector cooperation in responses to ivory trafficking.
Available at: https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/terrorism-conflict-and-ivory-trafficking-myth-reality-20618
Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking, and Organized Crime
in Haenlein, Cathy, M. L. R. Smith, eds. Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking and Security in Africa: Myths and Realities. Whitehall Paper 86. London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, 2016. ISBN: 9781138743779
One of the most serious security threats posed by poaching and wildlife trafficking may also be one of the least well documented: their relationship with organised crime. … To shed light on the subject, this chapter analyses the most common narratives on the link between poaching, wildlife trafficking and organised crime – and the security threat this link poses in African source and transit countries. The focus is predominantly on higher-level wildlife trafficking beyond the poaching stage. Here, the chapter argues that the dominant narratives frequently assert the fact of organised criminal involvement without going as far as they might to consider its security implications. The chapter goes on to highlight a number of obstacles to addressing these security dimensions. It does so emphasising the stumbling blocks posed by a lack of understanding of the precise dynamics of wildlife trafficking and its overlaps with other forms of organised crime.
Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02681307.2016.1252127?journalCode=rwhi20
A Social Model of Conservation to Fight Wildlife Trafficking: What Conservationists Can Learn from Public Health
Working Paper (2015, minor updates 2017)
The key determinants of whether particular species and ecosystems will live or die today are social factors – criminal behavior, political corruption, consumer behavior, land use decisions, cultural norms and practices, individual psychology, conflict, poverty, local livelihood choices, socio-economic inequalities, et al. But despite recognizing that our current biodiversity catastrophe has human, social roots, conservationists and environmentalists have yet to translate such consensus into action to save wildlife and the natural environment on a wide scale. This article examines this paradox in terms of efforts to combat illicit wildlife trafficking, and proposes a social model of conservation, which is focused on systematically identifying and addressing the social determinants of wildlife trafficking and presents an alternative to conventional – yet in many instances failing – bio-scientific models of conservation. This article focuses exclusively on the worldwide poaching crisis impacting most acutely charismatic and other economically valuable species, but likely has applicability to other important drivers of extinction and species decline such as habitat loss, ocean acidification, pollution, climate change, or other human-driven causes.
>> Download Working Paper (feedback welcome)
Threat Finance
in Hahn, Erin, ed. Special Topics in Irregular Warfare: Understanding Resistance. US Army Special Operations Command, 2016
From the Taliban in Southwest Asia to al Shabaab in the Horn of Africa to drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico, the behavior, capabilities, and ultimate success or failure of terrorist, criminal, and other transnational threats are closely tied to economic and financial factors. This close link among an adversary’s operational, strategic, and financial dynamics is widely recognized and has spawned a boutique art aimed at countering and taking advantage of what has come to be known as “threat finance” within not only the Special Operations Forces (SOF) but also within conventional military units, interagency counterterrorism and intelligence efforts, law enforcement, and the financial and charity sectors. Threat finance is a critical issue for both undergrounds and SOF. Learning to understand economic and financial dynamics and leverage them for effect is a critical and perhaps underused weapon in the national security arsenal.
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Lawyers, Guns, and Money: What Terrorists Can Teach Us about the Blurred Lines of the Future Global Economy
Scenario Magazine, April 2012
Navigating in the grey areas between the legal and the legal, the legitimate and the illicit, and the formal and the informal will be an unavoidable reality in the global economy of the future, the author thinks. Through the prism of one particular place - Eastleigh, “Little Mogadishu” in Nairobi, Kenya - suspected of being a key link in the financing of terrorism, this article explores what terrorists can teach us about how to navigate the global economy of the future; an economy where opportunities abound, but only for those who can successfully navigate the blurry lines between the formal and informal, legal and illicit, and legitimate and illegitimate.
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OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Peer Reviewed Articles
2009 Financing Terrorism along the Chechnya-Georgia Border, 1999-2002, Global Crime, Vol. 10, No. 3, August, 1–13.
2009 Terrorist Finance: Asking the right questions, Politics, Vol. 29, No. 2, 145–153.
Non-Refereed Articles
2014 Diaspora Communities and their Impact on Maritime Security and Security Sector Reform in the Indian Ocean Region. US Africa Command Knowledge Development Newsletter, April
2014 Cultural Drivers of the Conflict in Somalia, US Africa Command Knowledge Development Newsletter, February
2013 Economic and Financial Dimensions of Security in the Horn of Africa, US Africa Command Knowledge Development Newsletter, January.
2012 Somalia’s Transition: Hard Facts, Few Choices, US Africa Command Knowledge Development Newsletter, September.
2012 It’s the Economy, Stupid!: Socio-Economic Dimensions of the Somali Conflict, Stratagem, Winter.
2011 Targeted Threat Finance Analysis, Stratagem, Fall
Conference Papers
2013 Financial Crime and Terrorism. East German Bankers Association 11th Annual Congress on Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing, Potsdam, Germany, 11-13 September
2013 Ethnography as a Tool for Understanding and Countering Illicit Trafficking, NATO Intelligence Analysts Conference, Mons, Belgium, 2-4 June
2013 Social and Political Dimensions of Illicit Trafficking in Southern Africa. Intergovernmental Workshop on Illicit Trafficking, Maputo, Mozambique, 12 June.
2013 Illicit Wildlife Trafficking: Learning from terrorist and illicit finance. Niassa Reserve Workshop on Wildlife Conservation and Applied Social Research, Pemba, Mozambique, 18-20 March.
2011 Targeted Threat Finance Analysis, National Counter Threat Finance Conference, National Ground Intelligence Center, Charlottesville, VA, USA 18-21 July.
2012 with Saunders, J. Still More Good than Harm?: Using Scenario-Based Analysis to Assess the Future of Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Policy. Paper to the Premediation, Anticipation, Speculation: Futures in Finance and Security Conference, Amsterdam, 21-22 January.
2008 A Methodology for Analyzing the Political Economy of Conflict. Paper to the Understanding Conflicts, Cross-Cultural Perspectives Conference, Aarhus, Denmark, 18 August.
2008 Reconceptualizing ‘Terrorist Finance.’ Paper to the New Agendas in Peace & Conflict Research Conference, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, St Andrews, Scotland, 30 October.
2007 Power Politics and the Analysis of Terrorist Finance. Paper to the Mind the Gap Conference, St Andrews, Scotland, 20 October.
Magazine Articles
2007 Not So Legal Tender: What Next For The Financial War On Terrorism? Janes Intelligence Review. 19(02) February: 14-17
Commissioned Reports
LEAD AUTHOR
2010 The Mexican Mafia: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 Jihadist Logistical Support Networks in Europe: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Arms Trafficking from the United States to Mexico: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
2010 Radiological Smuggling in the Caucuses. Report commissioned by Helios Global, Inc.
2010 Al Qaeda: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM): A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 The Juarez Cartel: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 The Sinaloa Cartel: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 Domestic Right-Wing Militants: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 White Supremacist Militants: : A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2010 Anti-Abortion Militants: : A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Radical Islamists in Somalia: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Al Qaeda: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Dawood Ibrahim and D-Company: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Domestic Right-Wing Militants: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 White Supremacist Militants: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2009 Anti-Abortion Militants: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2008 Chechen Separatists: A Special Analysis. Report commissioned by the US of Homeland Security (DHS).