Trans-state political terrorism is a strategy used in pursuit of ethnonational, religious or revolutionary objectives. International organized crime, in contrast, seeks material gain by smuggling weapons, drugs, consumer goods, and humans as well as by illegal fund transfers. How do these two types of “global bads” make common cause? Under what conditions do politically-motivated terrorists cooperate with international criminal cartels and networks, and vice versa? A major challenge in the building of such an explanatory model is its complex dependent variable demanding explanation for the interaction of two conceptually distinct motives for joint action.
Publication Information
Mincheva, Lyubov, and Ted Robert Gurr. 2006. "Unholy Alliances? How Trans-state Terrorism and International Crime Make Common Cause." Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego. http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/publications/papers/unholy_alliances.pdf