FOREWORD

摘要

The April/May edition of the RUSI Journal launches an article series on transnational organised crime and security that will run throughout the rest of the year. The first three articles presented here set the context for the rest of the series, whose aims and rationale in tackling this vast and varied subject are explored in a dedicated series introduction on page 4. James Bergeron analyses the way in which organised crime and international security overlap, and assesses whether armed forces could potentially play a role in countering the proliferation and the effects of such criminal activity. James Cockayne follows up with a piece focusing on the conditions that allow organised crime to emerge in conflict and post-conflict situations, showing how criminal groups can be much more than mere economic actors, potentially adopting a variety of strategies in order to assert their position vis-a-vis political and government actors. He then proceeds to analyse the strategic responses available to international policy-makers. Finally, Frank G Madsen looks at a phenomenon that is often at the heart of organised crime: corruption. Difficult to define in theory and sometimes to pinpoint in practice, corruption can nonetheless be understood as a 'social bad' that can spread through the very fabric of society to sustain organised crime.