Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Term Paper

He says that post-9/11, this policy has become entrenched in national security rhetoric, and also in action. He links this entrenchment of this thought to action taken against al-Qaeda, and (in articles by him, subsequent to his book) also to the attack on Iraq.

In short, Naylor's book argues that the system currently in place to deal with "cartels" and the illegal drug trade are wholly inadequate, and are leading to an infringement of civil liberties, certainly for Americans, but also for people the world over, who are being affected by the U.S.' uncompromising stance against the international drug trade.

An article by Bagley (2003) entitled, "Globalization, weak states and international organized crime" reinforces some of Naylor's arguments. He argues that weak states are the best places for organized crime to flourish, using the cases of Russia and Colombia. In Colombia, in particular, he singles out the lack of transparency in the banking system as a factor in the rise of organized crime there.

He disagrees with Naylor on the influence of globalization on the international trade in drugs, saying that, "it is undoubtedly the case that the process of globalization has facilitated the international dimension of the actions of cartels over the last decade," "by reducing the size of the world, so that it is easier for criminal networks to be strengthened" (Bagley, 2003).

He further argues that the "neoliberal tendency towards widening the divide between rich and poor [in many Latin American countries], coupled with a lack of legal, viable, manufacturing and export industries....have, in the past few decades, led to ideal conditions in which international crime can develop, and mulitply" (not a literal translation; Bagley, 2003).

He then goes on to analyze, in great detail, the process through which the deep criminalization, which, he argues, is now embedded in Russian society, developed, and also summarizes the activities of the "mafia" in Latin America and the Caribbean, discussing Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Cuba, and Brazil and the Southern Cone in detail (linking the drugs trade with the action of guerrilla groups, such as FARC in Colombia).

He then moves on to discuss the impact of the illegal drugs trade on these countries, asking "what are the probable consequences of this deep penetration of this trade?" (Bagley, 2003). He says that the major consequences are "more violence, more indiscriminate assassinations" (Bagley, 2003).

He uses the case of Colombia to show that "the dangers and risks associated with this illegal trade include more financing for FARC, which will lead to them intensifying their already antagonistic relations with the police, and with the army, escalating the violence already present within the country" (Bagley, 2003).

He finishes his essay by saying that the current actions against terrorists by the U.S. is not sufficient: what needs to happen, he says, is that, "new and more efficient - worldwide - mechanisms for uncovering terrorist organizations, drug trafficking and illegal arms sales need to be developed," and he says that "Bush's recent actions against terrorism could jeopardize the ability for such worldwide mechanisms to be developed and implemented" (Bagley, 2003).

Both Naylor (2002) and Bagley (2003) are very much against the idea of globalization, and the actual presence of Bush in office in the U.S.: both see this as a threat to stability in the world.

Bibliography

Bruce Bagley, "La Globalizacion de la delincuencia organizada," in Foreign Affairs en Espanol,…