PUBLICATIONS
The ‘Dark Side of Globalisation’? Anti‑Illicit Trade Discourse and the Role of Ideas in the Fight Against Globalised Economic Criminality
Anti-illicit trade discourse, shaped largely by actors in the Global North, has developed quietly over decades, well before recent geopolitical tensions put global trade in the spotlight. Drawing on 52 interviews with international organisations, government agencies, private firms and NGOs, this paper traces how the category of ‘illicit trade’ emerged through three threads: tobacco smuggling, counterfeit goods and trade-based money laundering. It finds that the discourse focuses enforcement on discrete smuggling activities and stigmatises particular trade actors, rather than tackling the systemic drivers of globalised economic crime, and may ultimately weaken the political will needed to address illicit finance at its roots.
Adam Blanden (University of Birmingham)
Dr Mayya Konovalova (Birmingham Business School)
Prof Sami Bensassi (Birmingham Business School)
October 2026
Contested Rare Earth Frontiers in the Myanmar–China Borderlands: Extraction, Conflict and Uneven Development
This research paper examines the rare earth corridor linking Kachin State in northern Myanmar with Yunnan Province in China, where extraction has become increasingly important to global critical mineral supply chains. It explores the environmental and social harms concentrated in the region, alongside the conflict, fragmented authority and war economies shaping extraction. Focusing on developments since late 2024, when the Kachin Independence Army took control of major rare earth mining areas, the paper shows how extraction is continually shaped by competing interests, territorial struggles, livelihoods and local contestation. It argues for a deeper understanding of the political and social relations underpinning critical mineral frontiers.
Dr Patrick Meehan (University of Manchester)
Dan Seng Lawn (KRC)
Dr Xu Peng (Manchester / SOAS CIVAD )
Professor Jonathan Goodhand (SOAS University of London)
October 2026
Margins and Metropoles: Illicit Economies and the Making of Uneven Development
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