ABSTRACT
This chapter is a study of the finances of insurgent groups. It takes the view that a "model" guerrilla movement evolves through three stages, with corresponding changes in both its expenditure responsibilities and its fundraising activities. In the earliest stage it engages in hit-and-run operations against individual symbols of the state, either officials or isolated institutions like police stations and army outposts. In the next stage the guerrilla movement begins openly disputing the political power of the state, mainly through the conduct of low intensity war against the infrastructure of the formal economy. In the final stage the guerrilla movement succeeds in implanting itself firmly on a piece of territory from which the state is effectively excluded. For the guerrilla group the underground economy, and the treasures it yields, are tools with which to carry out a political agenda; for the criminal organization the riches of the black market are an end in themselves.
