Book description
Any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, carries news about
illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or
counterfeit goods The intense media coverage devoted to the war on
terrorism has helped to obscure the other new wars of globalisation.
Illicit international trade pits governments against agile,
well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal
or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator
for murder, mayhem, and global insecurity than religious fanaticism.
Illicit is the first book to reveal the full scale of this
dark underground. It uncovers the connections between illegal
industries and shows how they join forces to breed new lines of
business, feed off political instability, foster violence and enable
terrorism. How do pirated movies or CD's find their way to illegal
markets worldwide even before they are released? And how, in our free,
modern world, have over 30 million women and children - in South East
Asia alone - been trafficked in the past ten years?
For the last six years, Moisés NaÃm has been editor and publisher
of the influential journal
Foreign Policy
. NaÃm holds an MS and a PhD from MIT and was the minister of Trade and
Industry in his native Venezuela, as well as an executive Director of
the World Bank. Since 1989, he has been a forum fellow at the World
Economic Forum and an advisor to its annual meeting in Davos. This is
his first general trade book.
