The Third Man

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-62
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Black Market ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
Host State ◽  
The Third ◽  
Formal Economy ◽  
Similar Pair ◽  
Separatist Movement

This chapter traces host state, separatist movement, and mafia relations in Serbia and Georgia (1989–2012). Kosovo and South Ossetia are the most similar pair of separatist stories in the ex-Yugoslav and ex-Soviet spaces. Their unique mix of wars (foreign and civil), separatist mobilizations (some successful, others less so), and mafia roles (sometimes tearing states, sometimes consolidating them) offers precious lessons on the agency of organized crime. In Serbia and Georgia, war was mafia as much as state business. Borders were made and unmade by smugglers. The black market was not an anomaly; the formal economy was. What separatists achieved depended tremendously on whether organized crime was multiethnic or not, violent or not, strong or not. Different mafia roles gave different results. Though organized crime in both countries began as a rejoicing third, the mafia's role in Kosovo evolved into a divider and conqueror, while in South Ossetia it evolved into a mediator. These differing trajectories account for the greater success of Kosovo's separatist movement.

Smuggling Kidneys and Uranium

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-102
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
Damage Control ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
The Public ◽  
Host State ◽  
Enriched Uranium ◽  
Separatist Movement

This chapter examines the exposure of two nefarious criminal episodes — organ smuggling in Kosovo and highly enriched uranium (HEU) smuggling in South Ossetia — which tested the resolve, organization, and patriotism of specialized mafias. Caught red-handed, the traffickers tainted separatists' legitimacy as the public scandals provoked repression from international military authorities (in Kosovo) or the host state (in South Ossetia). Damage control was necessary — but only one separatist movement managed it. The chapter compares three dimensions of mafia capacity: infrastructure, regarding control of borders and sites; autonomy, concerning the ability to leverage separatist ideology and instrumentalize movement institutions; and community, apropos levels of fear, discipline, and clan-based solidarity. Nefarious crime harmed Kosovo's separatists less because mafia capacity was greater, thereby containing the damage.

Mafia Filter

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-81
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
South Ossetia ◽  
Host State ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Separatist Movement

This chapter compares the organized criminal filtering of regional smuggling opportunities (in drugs and arms) into separatist movement benefit. For separatists, it is preferable to have transnational smuggling in their region than not. This is trivial, almost axiomatic. Movements are denied formal channels for various resources they sorely need — money, arms, fighters, and propaganda channels. What they cannot procure within host state borders, they must smuggle across them. When separatists have the fortuitous circumstance of regional smuggling routes, it is only natural they exploit it. But the advantage does not come automatically. Mafia capacity and predisposition in these rackets at critical junctures — 1999 in Kosovo and 2008 in South Ossetia — enhanced and stagnated separatism, respectively.

scholarly journals Historical meaning of party socialism and the logic of failure in planned economy

2006 ◽  
pp. 51-73
Author(s):  
Masajuki Ivata
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Black Market ◽  
Planned Economy ◽  
The Third ◽  
Centralized Planning ◽  
Market Plan

The paper consists of three parts. The first part discusses the socialist thought and practice, the second the theory of crisis in the economy with centralized planning, and at the end the author analyses the role of dollar black market in the planned economy in Poland. The first part has the following structure: Four methodological fields of research Socio-experimental cycles; Consumed legitimacy; Anorganic dictatorship versus the organic dictatorship; MPC triangle (market - plan - compromise) as the 20th century heritage. The second part investigates the conditions for the balance in planned economy, functional and non-functional processes in planned economy and finally the failure of planned economy. The third part discusses the issue of the relation between the black market course of dollar and the balance levels of domestic (in this case - Polish) planned prices.

scholarly journals Call to avert acceleration of COVID-19 from India’s Sabarimala pilgrimage of 25 million devotees

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Rajasekharan Nayar ◽  
Shaffi Fazaludeen Koya ◽  
Venkitesh Ramakrishnan ◽  
Arathi P Rao ◽  
Gnanaseelan Kanakamma Libu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host State ◽  
The Third

India has the third-highest COVID-19 burden. Hosting the Sabarimala pilgrimage of an estimated 25 million can compromise the near-mitigated but fragile COVID-19 status of the host State of Kerala, accelerate the ongoing outbreaks in other states of India, and potentially in multiple countries with emigrants from Kerala.

Organized Crime in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Swanström ◽  
Christina Wenngren
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Black Market ◽  
Criminal Networks ◽  
Transnational Organized Crime ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Tax Returns ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
Drugs And Crime

Transnational organized crime is part and parcel of the modern, globalized economy. The black market has irrefutable influence over both economic and political structures. It corrodes, corrupts, and coopts the institutions with which it comes into contact. Features that arise as a side effect of organized criminal activity also impact economic, social, and political developments. Isolated approaches aimed at counteracting criminal networks have proved ineffective, necessitating a fresh perspective on foreign policy-based solutions. A central difficulty of researching organized crime is the opaque nature of criminal networks, whose members prefer to operate in the shadows. The underworld does not owe accountability to any outsiders, nor do crime syndicates generally file tax returns. International bodies like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are forced to rely on the reports of member states, which are often subject to distortion. This makes accurate assessment of the extent and impact of organized crime difficult, to say the least. Part of what makes the black market difficult to combat is the malleable approach of criminal networks. They employ a variety of strategies to pursue their illicit activity and will quickly adapt to the given strength or weakness of their host state. These strategies manifest themselves as either evasion, confrontation, or infiltration of state institutions. All of these strategies undermine legitimate sociopolitical structures, making it imperative to implement effective foreign policy initiatives that fight the trade as a whole.

5 The Microeconomics of Investment Treaties

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnitcha Jonathan ◽  
Skovgaard Poulsen Lauge N ◽  
Waibel Michael
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Fiscal Illusion ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Host State ◽  
Investment Protection ◽  
The Third ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
The Impact

This chapter surveys the impact of investment treaties on decision-making at the firm and government levels. The focus is on whether investment treaties’ influence on the decisions of firms and states leads to improvements in efficiency. The first section examines the ‘hold-up’ problem, which provides the most influential and coherent microeconomic justification for the inclusion of investment protection provisions in investment treaties. The second section explores the problem of ‘fiscal illusion’ in host state decision-making, which could result in ‘over-regulation’ of foreign investment in the absence of an investment treaty. The third section considers whether investment treaties solve problems of discrimination against foreign investors, as well as the possibility that investment treaties lead to discrimination in favour of foreign investors.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Lisa Lindquist Dorr
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Black Market ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
The South ◽  
Federal Law Enforcement ◽  
Presence Of People

While most histories of Prohibition focus on the northeastern United States and the organized crime that flourished during the era, this book turns the attention to the South. The South's proximity to islands where liquor was legal, its long coastline, and presence of people interested in profit or drinking attracted smugglers. Despite temperance advocates hopes that Prohibition would bring reform, a widespread black market in illegal liquor soon developed. The continued trade in alcohol helped make the South more modern, and drew federal law enforcement efforts to the South and into Cuba.

Ethnographies of Organized Crime

2021 ◽  
pp. 339-359
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The Third ◽  
Seminal Contribution ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
Street Corner ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Official Data

This chapter discusses how the ethnographic method has been used to study organized crime (OC). The first part defines OC, the mafia, and ethnography. The second section reviews early field studies, and the third focuses on the seminal contribution by W.F. Whyte, Street Corner Society (1943/1993). Whyte has set the model for subsequent ethnographies of OC and the mafia as involving (1) extensive periods in the field, (2) a project that is independent of authorities, (3) developing an intimate knowledge of the place or an organization, (4) the observation of interactions, and (5) a concern for the validity and the reliability of the data collected, including the impact of the ethnographer’s position on the information gathered. The fourth section offers a selective review of subsequent ethnographies of OC which are compared and contrasted with Street Corner Society. The final section discusses risk, the use of official data, the issue of anonymity, “rapid ethnographies,” and the limitations of fieldwork.

Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-170
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Host State ◽  
Separatist Movements ◽  
Autonomous Province

This chapter analyzes Eastern Europe, where ethnocentric organized crime dominated the separatist movements of Greater Albania (Macedonia), Transnistria (Moldova), and Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan). The collapses of the USSR and Yugoslavia have produced separatist movements across Eastern Europe. Some secessionists triumphed, others stagnated in “frozen conflicts,” and still others descended into protracted bloodshed. For states and wannabe states alike, organized crime — with its rogue gallery of gangster brokers, entrepreneurs, and warlords — was integral to making and unmaking nations. The Azeri host state deployed gangsters to combat separatists in wartime and sustain its oil regime in peacetime. In the cases of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Donbas (Ukraine), mafias' indiscriminate smuggling from within government structures obstructed separatists and host states alike.

Fortress in the village of Achabet in the Republic of South Ossetia According to Written Sources and Historiographic Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Eduard V. Kaziev
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
The Third ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Village ◽  
Written Sources

The fortress in the village of Achabet is known from a number of written sources of the early 15th and 18th centuries. Despite this circumstance, in the scientific tradition it is contradictory to believe that the first information about the fortress contained in written sources refers to the events of the middle of the 16th century, and the lower limit of several periods of its construction is correlated by researchers with the same time. The presence of a contradiction between the information about the fortress contained in written sources and the presentation of this information in the scientific tradition determined the relevance of this study. The aim of the study, therefore, was to resolve this contradiction by analyzing and comparing the known information from written sources about this monument with information about it contained in the historical and linguistic literature, as well as with descriptions of the monument presented in the literature on the history of fortifications of the Transcaucasia. This comparison, in turn, made it possible to present a possible chronology of the construction of a number of objects that made up the complex of the monument over several periods of its construction. According to the results of the study, it is assumed that the tower and the adjacent semicircle of the first fortress wall were erected at the turn of the 13th–14th centuries, the second fortress wall was built along the first in the second half of the 15th century, and the third wall, the largest in terms of area covered, was erected in the 30-s of the 18th century. The materials for the study were written sources, as well as information about field examinations of the monument, available in the scientific tradition. The research was carried out on the basis of the method of comparative historical analysis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document