Abstract
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear trafficking in Russia and the former Soviet Republics has become an ever-prevalent threat for international security. This essay provides an assessment of the organisational structure of this transnational organised crime (TOC). Using the instrumental approach to network analysis and Bourdieu’s concept of social and human capital as a methodological framework, this essay investigates the nature of connections maintained among criminals during the various stages of the nuclear trafficking process – acquisition, transportation, sale – and contends that nuclear trafficking displays characteristics both of a stable hierarchy and a fluid network. Thus, it reaches the conclusion that TOC groups involved in this illicit activity present a hybrid form of organisational structure which is best described as a directed network – that is, a criminal entity with a stable group of organisers located at its core, and fluid nodes of individuals in charge of executing the different phases of the trafficking process at its periphery.
Highlights
While criminologists have often argued that nuclear theft in Russia and the former SovietRepublic is perpetuated by solitary amateurs, the evidence suggests the presence of a broader trafficking organisation, displaying the involvement of transnational organised crime (TOC) groups
This paper focuses on the organisational structure of nuclear trafficking and assesses whether it can be framed as a stable hierarchy or a fluid network
Drawing on these findings and using organised crime typologies, it is argued that nuclear trafficking has a hybrid organisational structure, which can be framed as a directed network
Summary
While criminologists have often argued that nuclear theft in Russia and the former SovietRepublic is perpetuated by solitary amateurs, the evidence suggests the presence of a broader trafficking organisation, displaying the involvement of transnational organised crime (TOC) groups. The second section of this paper investigates the organisational characteristics visible at the three different stages of the nuclear trafficking process – acquisition, transportation, sale – through the lens of an instrumental approach to network analysis. It finds that this illicit trade displays features both of a stable hierarchy and a fluid network. Drawing on these findings and using organised crime typologies, it is argued that nuclear trafficking has a hybrid organisational structure, which can be framed as a directed network
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