| | | New publications on the role of political will in crime targeted sanctions and on the wider effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on organised crime, sanctions evasion, drugs trafficking and synthetics, and on criminality in Russia itself
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| | Each month, we’ll be showcasing our latest research, news & events. Click on the subscribe button to receive our newsletter. |
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SOC ACE Director joins new UK Anti-Corruption Strategy External Engagement Group
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Professor Heather Marquette (University of Birmingham) has been invited to join a new External Engagement Group chaied by the Rt. Hon. Baroness Margaret Hodge, the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Champion. The Group brings together representatives from academia, civil society, the private sector and Parliament to support implementation of the UK Anti-Corruption Strategy by providing constructive challenge through structured dialogue between the government and external stakeholders. |
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OECD Conference on Building Upstream Resilience to Organised Crime |
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Left to right: Mr. Kazuhiko Takeda, Deputy Commissioner, National Tax Agency Japan, Chair of the OECD Taskforce on Tax Crimes and Other Financial Crimes, Ms. Isabelle Jégouzo, Directrice, Agence française anticorruption Moderator: Mr. Simon Madden, Chair of the OECD Working Party on Public-Integrity and Anti-Corruption, Director of Propriety & Ethics, Cabinet Office, United Kingdom. Prof. Heather Marquette, SOC ACE.
Prof. Heather Marquette (University of Birmingham) joined a panel at the OECD Conference on Building Upstream Resilience to Organised Crime as part of the OECD’s annual Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum. The panel on ‘Using Integrity Systems to Disrupt Organised Crime: Toward Adaptive and Coordinated Strategies’ discussed how corruption enables organised crime to exploit weak governance, influence policy and obstruct justice and lessons on aligning strategic frameworks specifically taking organised crime into account. |
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| | Research engagement on SOC-sanctions policy
SOC ACE research led by Cathy Haenlein (RUSI), Elijah Glantz (RUSI) and Dr Anton Moiseienko (Australian National University) on serious and organised crime and sanctions has been cited in the new European Parliamentary Research Service briefing ‘A New Horizontal Sanctions Regime: Migrant Smuggling, Trafficking in Human Beings and Other Forms of Organised Crime’.
The briefing discusses the proposal of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission to create a new horizontal sanctions regime under the European Union's common foreign and security policy targeting individuals and entities involved in migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings and other forms of organised crime. It highlights the main choices which may shape the initiative, which Members may wish to explore ahead of formal Commission adoption.
In the ‘Expert Views’ section, the briefing cites two SOC ACE outputs: the 2022 RUSI paper ‘Targeted Sanctions and Organised Crime’ and the 2025 commentary ‘Disrupting Organised Crime: If You Can't Beat Them, Sanction Them?, as well as a 2026 study for the European Parliament led by the Organised Crime and Policing research group at RUSI. |
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SOC ACE research featured in RUSI panel on state threats in Sub-Saharan Africa
Matthew Redhead (RUSI) drew on his SOC ACE research in a panel on State Threats in Sub-Saharan Africa: Identity, Influence and Insecurity at RUSI. The event previewed new RUSI research showing how state and non-state actors had increasingly weaponised social identities – including gender – to manipulate information, shape threat narratives and weaken governance across the region.
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SOAS hosts workshop on the digital illicit economy |
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Caption: Left to right are Bing Han (University of Portsmouth), Ling Li (Univeristy of Melbourne) and Xu Peng (University of Manchester).
SOAS’s Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD) hosted a workshop on researching the digital illicit economy, bringing together around 20 specialists from diverse fields. Supported by SOAS Research Culture’s Female Researchers in Conflict and Hostile Contexts initiative, the event featured contributions from Dr Xu Peng (University of Manchester & SOAS University of London) , Dr Bing Han (University of Portsmouth), Ling Li (University of Melbourne) and Dr Chi Zhang (University of Warwick) .
Discussions examined how to define the digital scam economy, insights from Southeast Asia, and challenges around access, ethics and researcher mobility, highlighting the essential role of trust in producing meaningful research.
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Workshop on mid-level commanders and the peace process in Columbia
Lina Asprilla and Andrés Aponte (both GI-TOC) participated in a workshop hosted by the Civil War Paths and Peace Operations Network. The event explored the role of mid-level commanders in non-state armed groups, presenting new research that moves beyond viewing them simply as “spoilers” or “peace leaders.” Bringing together academics and international and national policymakers, the workshop discussed ongoing research and reflected on challenges in Colombia’s current peace context. Read more about their SOC ACE research here . |
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Targeted Sanctions and Serious and Organised Crime: The Role of Political Will
 A new research paper by Dr Anton Moiseienko (ANU), Cathy Haenlein and Elijah Glantz (both RUSI) explores the existing academic and media discussions of targeted sanctions against serious organised crime.
They find that while political will clearly shapes how SOC-related sanctions are designed and implemented, it remains surprisingly under-examined: often referenced only indirectly, yet leaving significant blind spots.
The paper calls for a more cohesive and politically informed research agenda that recognises the central role of political will.
You can read the paper here, and find out more about the project Assessing the effectiveness of sanctions as a tool to disrupt serious organised crime SOC ACE project. |
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 The boomerang effect: Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine expands crime rate at home
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered a domestic shock that is reshaping its criminal landscape and intensifying state repression. This briefing highlights a ‘boomerang effect’, where the war has destabilised Russia’s internal security more than Ukraine’s, leaving it both more criminalised and more coercive. Drawing on GDELT and POLECAT data, alongside interviews and trade analysis, the research finds that Russia has seen the sharpest rise in serious crime among Ukraine’s neighbours. Non-state criminal activity surged in 2022, especially in arms trafficking, drug markets and human trafficking. By 2024, Russia recorded 617,301 serious offences, its highest level since 2010, far exceeding increases in Ukraine or Poland. These trends are driven by weakened policing as personnel redeploy to the front, the normalisation of violence, returning traumatised veterans with weapon access, sanctions-related economic disruption, and expanded wartime criminal opportunities. As such, the research suggests post-war Russia is likely to remain deeply criminalised and increasingly dependent on repression. Read the briefing note here, and explore the Exploring the Consequences of Organised Crime and Illegal Trade Displacement on Eurasia SOC ACE research project for more information. |
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Criminal Geographies: How the Russo-Ukrainian War Reshaped Global Crime Networks
A new research paper by Dr Alexander Kupatadze (KCL) and Prof Erica Marat (NDU) finds Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed organised crime rather than suppressing it. Using media data, trade-based money-laundering analysis and over 100 interviews, researchers find criminal activity has shifted across borders, expanded in Russia, and taken on new digital and transnational forms.
Drug trafficking routes, illicit trade and sanctions evasion schemes have all adapted, with networks stretching from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and beyond. The findings show war and sanctions act as systemic shocks, reorganising illicit markets and demanding more forward-looking, multi-layered policy responses.
The research also offers a new framework for understanding displacement that demonstrates how organised crime responds selectively to disruption that may help improve prediction of potential displacement effects in the future. Read the briefing note here and explore the Exploring the Consequences of Organised Crime and Illegal Trade Displacement on Eurasia SOC ACE project for further information. |
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How Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine Displaced Drug Trafficking Routes in Europe and Central Asia
A new briefing note from Dr Alexander Kupatadze (KCL) and Prof Erica Marat (NDU) shows how conflict has driven major shifts in Eurasia’s illicit economies. Rather than disrupting organised crime, the war in Ukraine has redirected it.
Synthetic drug production has moved to Kazakhstan, heroin and cocaine routes have shifted through Belarus and the Balkans, and transnational networks have rapidly adapted to sanctions evasion pathways. Within Ukraine, domestic synthetic drug production has intensified, underscoring how conflict reshapes - rather than eliminates - criminal markets across the region.
Find this, and other project research, on the Exploring the Consequences of Organised Crime and Illegal Trade Displacement on Eurasia SOC ACE project page.
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SOC ACE Webinar
Intersections of Corruption and Welfare in Pakistan: Power, Access and Inequality
Wednesday 20 May 2026 | 10:00–11:00 (GMT) Speakers: Dr Zahid Mumtaz and Dr Caryn Peiffer Chair: Prof Heather Marquette (Birmingham) Register here. Dr Zahid Mumtaz (Australian National University) and Dr Caryn Peiffer (Bristol) will discuss their research examining the complex relationship between corruption and informal welfare regimes in Pakistan. Read thier research paper Conceptualising the interplay of corruption and an informal security welfare regime: Pakistan case study here. They will explore the dual role of corruption in simultaneously undermining formal welfare provision while serving as a survival mechanism for those excluded from official support. The session will outline a nuanced, path‑dependent framework for understanding, highlighting the political and social factors, and distinguishing between corruption that entrenches inequality and corruption that compensates for systemic failures. |
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Panel on ‘Rethinking the Real Politics of Organised Crime in an Era of Growing Scarcity’, ECPR General Conference 2026, Warsaw, 8-11 September.
Prof Heather Marquette is to lead a panel on Rethinking the real politics of organised crime in an era of growing scarcity at the ECPR 2026 conference in September in Krakow.
The panel will share new research looking at rethinking the ‘real politics’ or organised crime in a range of contexts with the aim of contributing to the growing literature on political settlements, and developing politically feasible responses to countering organised crime.
Dr Max Gallien (University of Sussex) will act as discussant with papers presented by
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| | | | Maria Nizzero appeared in the latest KickBack podcast. Host Robert Barrington interviewed Maria about her research with GI ACE – conducted with fellow researchers Professor John Heathershaw (University of Exeter) and Tom Mayne (University of Oxford/RUSI) - reframing kleptocracy as a transnational criminal enterprise. She explained how targeting organisational structures, identifying patterns of conduct, and recognising societal harm can strengthen UK asset recovery efforts and reshape policy responses to illicit finance.
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| | | | If you’ve used any of SOC ACE’s research to inform policy and/or practice, let us know by sending us an email at:
impact-socace@contacts.bham.ac.uk |
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Dr Xu Peng (SOAS) has a new article out in The Conversation 
