There is no doubt that globalization has enabled businesses across the globe to interact more freely, with less regulation, and across nearly all state borders. While this might not at first seem sinister, it is important to remember that a deregulation of the market affects all enterprises. Organized crime is, in the most literal sense, a business. It operates according to the laws of supply and demand, and is based on producing a profit. The new globalized market has made it far easier for these illegitimate industries to diversify their services and activates, and to work their organizations on a far larger and uninterrupted scale.

In his article “Global Organized Crime”, James H. Mittelman describes how he believes that organized crime syndicates have become globally innovative institutions. He claims that the rapid introduction of the free market into traditionally non-free market economies dispersed wealth in a very uneven manner, creating large populations of marginalized peoples willing to travel and take part in any affairs to remain afloat. Thus, as the poor emigrated to the economic hot spots of the world, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, New York, so did to the organized crime that fed off of the misfortunes of these migrants.

But that was just the beginning. The new economy gave organized crime the tools to diversify its operations. Aside from the stereotypical trafficking of peoples and narcotics, these enterprises stuck their greedy thumbs into the global pie: illegal currency transactions, “computer crimes, money laundering, stealing nuclear material” and more. Not only did these technologies give crime more business opportunities, but also made the action of crime across international borders far more efficient. Laptops and satellites have done the same for organized crime as they have for legitimate businesses. What's more, the process of freeing up global markets have made the borders of nations that much more permeable when it comes to illegal trafficking and trading.

Finally, the growth of globally integrated and connected criminal organizations serve to weaken the already vulnerable authority of the national governments. Organized crime’s ability to pay off and even circumvent governments has undermined the position of said administrations. But in a far more frightening way, these criminal organizations provide many of the same services that governments do, only a lot more and without all the red tape. They offer:

Banking in black and gray markets that operate outside the regulatory framework of the state; buying, selling and distributing controlled or prohibited commodities… providing swift and usually discreet dispute resolution and debt collection without resorting to the courts… and arranging security for so-called protection of businesses.


But what interests me the most, considering how it deal directly with my field of interest, is how organized crime deals so heavily in the black market arms trade. What is most alarming, however, is how the selling of illegal arms further intermingles organized crime with private and government institutions. The use worldwide of mercenary armies is only adding money to the bank accounts of those who sell the weapons used in such conflicts. This connection “between the state and organized crime gives rise to more state-sanctioned violence.”

Once again, as has always been a point I make with this blog, globalization is not perfect. As with all times of change there will be opportunists who will take advantage of the weekend joints of the evolving world. But this mustn’t continue. By attacking the root of the problem (wealth disparity) it is my hope that these organizations will begin to crumble from within.