Illicit economies are not confined to the margins of global development. This research examines how frontier and borderland regions are connected to rapidly developing metropolitan hubs through extraction, labour, trade, infrastructure and illicit supply chains. Introducing the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’, it shows how violence, poverty and environmental degradation can be produced by the unequal integration of these regions into wider political economies. The paper also challenges the separation of licit and illicit activity, demonstrating how informal and illegal economies can intersect with formal markets and metropolitan development. It argues for policy responses that address the broader systems that enable these connections, rather than focusing solely on borderlands.

Professor Jonathan Goodhand (SOAS University of London)

Dr Patrick Meehan (University of Manchester)

Xu Peng (Manchester / SOAS CIVAD )

August 2026

Online scam compounds are often described as a cybercrime problem, but this is only partly true. Victims encounter scams online, yet the industry is built offline. It depends on territorial control, armed protection, labour recruitment, telecom access, supply chains, transport routes, financial channels and legal ambiguity. This research shows that scam compounds in the China–Myanmar borderlands are not isolated criminal hideouts but nodes in a wider corridor through which people, goods, money, data and coercion circulate. Armed groups, militias, brokers, traders and state-linked actors regulate movement, provide protection, extract rents and shape enforcement outcomes. Far from being marginal, scam centres reveal how illicit borderland economies are embedded in broader processes of accumulation, governance and uneven development.

Xu Peng (Manchester / SOAS CIVAD )

July 2026

The war in Ukraine is fought not only on the battlefield but also through vast illicit trade networks that continue to generate revenue, evade sanctions and sustain Russia's military capabilities. This research uncovers the commercial, financial and maritime networks enabling these activities and explores how governments and businesses can better disrupt them.

Olivia Allison

Joshua Coyle

July 2026

This paper argues that when organised crime crosses into atrocity crimes or contributes to its commission, transitional justice can complement traditional law enforcement. Drawing on international examples, it highlights victim-centred approaches, truth-telling, reparations, and pattern-based investigations, while acknowledging challenges such as political resistance, overlapping mandates, and balancing justice with counter-organised crime efforts.

Huma Haider (Ind.)

July 2026

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has significantly reconfigured organised crime across Ukraine and neighbouring regions. Rather than simply disrupting illicit networks, the war and resulting sanctions have displaced and reshaped them. The most visible changes have occurred in the drugs market. Synthetic drug production has increasingly relocated to Kazakhstan, while trafficking routes for heroin and cocaine have shifted towards Belarus, Central Asia and the Balkans.

Dr Alexander Kupatadze (Kings College London)

Erica Marat (NDU)

April 2026

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reconfigured organised crime, displacing and transforming networks across regions. Crime has grown in both neighbouring states and Russia itself, with new actors, routes and cyber‑enabled methods emerging. War and sanctions act as systemic shocks, expanding illicit markets rather than suppressing them and demanding multi‑level policy responses.

Dr Alexander Kupatadze (Kings College London)

Erica Marat (NDU)

March 2026