The Limits of Cooperation in Regulating the Illicit Global Economy

Abstract

Slowly but surely, International Relations scholars are going over to the dark side. No, I don't mean they have embraced their inner Darth Vader. Rather, they have increasingly discovered the illicit world of drug smugglers, black market arms dealers, money launderers, tomb raiders, and sex traffickers—perhaps we could call this world the seamy underside of globalization. It is actually an old world that long predates “globalization” as a popular buzzword, but it is a relatively new world in terms of IR scholars actually recognizing its existence and importance as a subject of study. And it's long overdue. The latest example of this IR discovery is Asif Efrat's timely and wide-ranging book, Governing Guns, Preventing Plunder: International Cooperation Against Illicit Trade. The IR literature on international cooperation is, of course, vast and well-established. The same cannot be said of the literature on international cooperation in regulating illicit cross-border economic flows. In fact, this is one of the few books on the subject. Moreover, Efrat's approach is decidedly “mainstream,” bringing a notoriously unconventional subject into a notoriously conventional literature. This is a welcome and refreshing move, and Efrat's book makes a valuable contribution to the international cooperation literature.