Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Criminalized States in Latin America: An Emerging Tier-One National Security Priority -format

Strategic Studies Institute

Foreword

In July 2011, President Barack Obama unveiled
his Transnational Organized Crime Strategy, the first
comprehensive national policy effort to articulate
and combat illicit economies that, cumulatively, have
grown to more than $1 trillion. Although quite serious, this ever-increasing problem garnered relatively
little attention. The primary reasons for the lack of attention are the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001
(9/11), the two ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and the overall Global War on Terrorism, the changes
wrought by globalization and access to resources and
technology, and a general lack of understanding of
the phenomenon by the law enforcement and intelligence communities in most countries. The security
challenges and the geostrategic environment left few
resources to monitor, much less combat, transnational
organized crime (TOC) organizations.
Across the globe, TOC groups continued to grow in
power, influence, and resources, as President Obama’s
strategy indicates. The George W. Bush administration’s initial focus on the problem during its last few
years in office, ultimately led to the Obama strategy.
Over the past decade, the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC) has maintained a
focus on TOC issues and the growing ties between
traditional criminal structures and various terrorist
organizations. Extensive IASC field research documented the following developments: (1) the changing
nature of TOC organizations in Latin America and
West Africa; (2) the growing hybrid nature of criminal and terrorist groups; (3) the alliances with regional
and extra-regional state and nonstate actors; and, (4)
the growing involvement of the self-proclaimed Bolivarian states of Latin America whose governments
sanctioned criminal activities as part of coherent, multistate instruments of statecraft.
This monograph synthesizes research on such
criminalized states in Latin America. It documents
how, through the growing alliance with Iran and
other external actors, these governments have developed a clearly articulated view hostile to the United
States. That view also adopts a military doctrine of
asymmetric warfare that embraces the use of weapons of mass destruction. The associated doctrine is
further underpinned by a small group of intellectuals
who articulate a need for radical Shi’a Islam and the
armed, revolutionary Left to unite in order to defeat
the United States—a message that has been welcomed
by Bolivarian states.
Taken together, the emergence of criminalized,
strongly anti-American governments in the Western
Hemisphere, in alliance with Iran and other states
who sponsor terrorist organizations and consider the
United States to be the Great Satan, now represent a
tier-one threat to the security of the U.S. Homeland.
This monograph offers a template for examining similar developments in other parts of the world, as well
as recommendations on how to begin to confront the
emerging threat. The first step in the long process of
dealing with a multifaceted set of enemies with unlimited resources is to understand the nature of that
threat.

Source:

Douglas Farah

Link:

Internal Link:

https://surinamepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Transnational-Organized-Crime-Terrorism-and-Criminalized-States-in-Latin-America-An-Emrging-Tier-One-National-Security-Priority-ADA565540.pdf

Date:
August 1, 2012
Categories:
Tags:
Narcotics
Boxes:
Thesis
Years:
2012
Persons:
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