Para-statal armed groups, illicit economies and organised crime
PROJECT TEAM
Professor Jonathan Goodhand
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Contact: jg27@soas.ac.uk
Jonathan Goodhand’s is Professor in Conflict and Development Studies at SOAS. His research focuses on the political economy of conflict and post war transitions with a particular interest in illicit economies, borderland regions and the dynamics of brokerage. He was the Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded GCRF research project ‘Drugs & (dis)order: building a political economy peace in the aftermath of war’.
Dr Patrick Meehan
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Contact: pm42@soas.ac.uk
Patrick Meehan is a Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. His research explores the political economy of violence, conflict and development, with a primary focus on Myanmar’s borderlands with China and Thailand. He also holds a position as Assistant Professor in Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick, where he leads a research project on rare earth mining in the Myanmar-China borderlands. He has conducted research for the UK Government, the World Bank, The Asia Foundation, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and The Nordic International Support Foundation (NIS).
PROJECT SUMMARY
This research presents a three-part series examining the nexus between paramilitaries, illicit economies and organised crime, with a particular focus on the borderlands of Afghanistan, Myanmar and Colombia:
The first paper conceptualises coercive brokerage and outlines how this concept advances the growing body of recent literature on militias and paramilitaries.
The second paper then works with the concept of coercive brokerage to present comparative analysis of the paramilitary-organised crime nexus in three contexts: Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar. These case studies draw upon data and analysis generated by a four-year Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project, Drugs & (Dis)order (https://drugs-and-disorder.org/).
The third paper outlines a set of policy implications based on the key findings from across the case studies.
Together, the three papers explore four interconnected questions and lines of enquiry:
What is the relationship between coercive brokers, public authority and frontier governance? We explore how, and with what effects paramilitaries relate to and become embedded in forms of state and non/para/anti-state forms of rule in the margins.
How, and with what effects, do paramilitaries become involved with illicit economies and organised crime? We are interested in the pathways through which paramilitaries enter, extend and consolidate their roles in exploiting and regulating illicit (and licit) markets.
What is the relationship between paramilitaries, organised crime and politics? Rather than viewing illicit economies/criminal activities as incompatible with – or in opposition to – politics, we look at examples where the former have provided a springboard into the latter. We aim to study the pathways through which engagement in illicit activities may (or may not) lead to particular forms, or ways of ‘doing’, politics.
What policies or policy combinations can more effectively address the phenomenon of coercive brokerage in conflict-affected borderlands? This is a significant policy challenge given the fact that some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised communities live in regions shaped by paramilitary rule, whilst the criminal activities that sustain these groups have complex diffusion and spill-over effects, internationally and globally. The nexus between paramilitaries and organised crime represents an urgent development and security challenge that contemporary responses fail to adequately address.
PUBLICATIONS
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Coercive Brokerage: The Paramilitary-Organized Crime Nexus in Borderlands and Frontiers Working Paper I (SOC ACE Research Paper RP26)
Coercive Brokerage: Paramilitaries, Illicit Economies and Organised Crime in the Frontiers of Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar - Working Paper II (SOC ACE Research Paper RP28)
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Publications from this project will be posted here when available