The Significance of 1992

Abstract

Perceptions of domestic and international security risks have changed significantly over the last 15–20 years, in particular since the end of the Cold War. New forms of threat have developed and existing forms have mutated. In many cases the line which separates terrorism from organized crime has become blurred, in that both forms of criminality use violence or the threat of violence to achieve their ends, both sustain themselves financially through control of ‘criminalized’ resources such as drugs and arms, and both have a political strategy. Nonetheless, one can generally distinguish between the ideological content of political terrorism and the pragmatic goals of organized crime: whereas the primary aim of politically inspired violence is the pursuit of specific objectives involving the overthrow of a government and/or the status quo, the political agenda of an organized crime group is determined by the quest for power, impunity and profits. Organized criminals seek to penetrate and suborn the state and cohabit with it, using terrorist tactics to intimidate the State when their privileges are at risk, for example when a law on extradition is under discussion or when investigators come too close to certain vital interests. Another term sometimes applied to organized crime is enterprise crime because participants are usually engaged in the provision of illicit goods and services, or licit goods that have been acquired through illicit means such as theft or fraud.