ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the use of violence by organised crime groups and on the impact that intersections between delinquency and insurgency produce on the global security agenda. Scholarship on security and conflict resolution has investigated the nexus between terrorism and organised crime as a strategic alliance between two non-state actors. The ability of criminals to progressively increase their performance at the global level and to interact with other groups that violently oppose the state, namely insurgents and paramilitaries, deserves to be evaluated within a comprehensive theoretical framework. In particular, this chapter seeks to answer the following questions: Does the use of violence by organised crime represent a consolidated threat rather than a contingent and temporary practice? Are regional variations relevant? And what impact does this have on global and regional countermeasures? The chapter is divided into three parts. First, the state of the art on the crime-terror nexus is discussed and conceptualised. Second, this nexus is analysed against additional threats, represented by insurgency, armed conflicts and political instability. In the final part, the focus shifts to the use of violence by organised crime groups, analysing major developments and recent trends.
