ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the mechanisms that generate specific types of crimes in failed states and make them criminal actors in the global sphere. It analyses two distinct characteristics of failed states that are related to two types of crime. First, failed states pose internal 'security dilemmas' to their citizens that mirror those in the international sphere, and that are the root causes of violence, as well as of typical forms of organised crime. Second, the failure of institutions, which restrict exploitation and rent seeking among elites, lead to all forms of grand corruption, environmental crime and exploitation of resources. Failed states seem to be more disjunct from globalisation and the global economy, with fragile links mainly established through criminal exchanges. Failed states bring home the message to a global world that strong states and governments foster security, locally for their own citizens, and globally for those in other countries.
