Illicit Networks and the Rise of “Mafia States”

The conventional narrative of transnational crime describes a weak nation-state exploited by sophisticated organized criminal groups. In this zero-sum worldview, the state loses control as nonstate actors gain power. In some countries, however, government institutions—from executive bodies to intelligence services to central banks to the police—are involved in a  range of illicit activities. In a recent piece in Foreign Affairs, Moises Naim labeled this phenomenon “mafia states,” arguing that the new breed of criminal statehood poses a particular threat to the international community by “blurring the conceptual line” between the licit and illicit worlds.

To analyze the structure of illicit networks and assess gaps, weaknesses, and opportunities in anticrime efforts, Google Ideas and the Council on Foreign Relations launched a new roundtable series. The second roundtable, “Illicit Networks: Mafia States, Nonstate Actors,” convened fifteen experts to deconstruct the concept of ‘mafia states’ and explore its role in illicit networks. The discussion (summarized here) yielded several important observations.