Course Description

Globalization has provided ample opportunities for transnational criminal organizations and the pursuit of illegal activities worldwide. Illicit and illegal flows of goods, services, information, money and people affect societies all around the world. These flows represent the shadowy side of globalization and signify a significant but understudied dimension of the global economy. This course introduces students to this facet of globalization that pertains to transnational organized crime. The course provides students with concrete empirical cases, introduces relevant scholarship and encourages students to reflect critically on the nature of global crime and insecurity. By inviting students to consider selected case studies on the trafficking and trade of illicit goods such as arms, drugs, and human organs, as well as illicit services such as money laundering and terrorist financing, students are encouraged to reflect on how these activities are intricately linked to their local lives, and the opportunities and challenges these issues present for global governance and economic development of the societies they live in.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the literature on the illicit global economy and its linkages to transnational crime in the global era.
2. Appraise the constraints, dilemmas and quandaries facing nation-states and international institutions in their dealings with the illicit activities in the globalized age and reflect upon the challenges posed for global democratic governance.
3. Critically question and reflect upon existing ethical judgements about illicit activities and their actual functionality in host societies.
4. Comprehend the tensions between state actions and criminal entrepreneurship and the ambiguous moral areas of state-sanctioned covert activities.
5. Identify the implications of global criminal activities and how they relate to local contexts and in turn how local criminal activities have worldwide repercussions.

Offer Semester and Day of Teaching

Second semester (Wed)