176 CHAPTER FivE ■ The STaTe
transnational crime
Nowhere is the challenge to the state more evident than in the rise of transnational
crime— illicit activities made easier by globalization. Growing in value, extending in
scope, and becoming highly specialized, these activities have been facilitated by more
and faster transportation routes, rapid communication, and electronic financial net-
works. Transnational crime has led to the accelerating movement of illegal drugs,
counterfeit goods, smuggled weapons, laundered money, trade in body parts, piracy, and
trafficking in poor and exploited people. (Chapter 11 explores this situation further.)
Or ga nized around flexible networks and circuitous trafficking routes, and lubricated
by electronic transfers of funds, transnational crime has created new businesses while
distorting national and regional economies. States and governments are largely inca-
pable of responding: rigid bureaucracies, laborious procedures, interbureaucratic
fighting, and corrupt officials undermine states’ efforts. In fact, some states— such as
China, North Korea, and Nigeria— actively participate in these illicit activities or do
nothing to stop them because key elites are making major profits.^27
Other states such as Mexico have made concerted efforts to stop transnational crime.
Since 2006, Mexico has undertaken a major effort to break up its drug cartels. That
effort has escalated in increased vio lence. Between 2007 and 2014, more than 164,000
people have become victims of hom i cide, more than the combined deaths in Iraq and
Af ghan i stan. An estimated 34 to 55 percent of these hom i cides can be attributed to the
drug cartels. Or ga nized crime- style killings remain a major threat. The 2014 killings of
43 teachers’ college students by a local gang led to outrage in the country. A panel con-
vened by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights accused the government
of hiding the presence of police and army in the area at the time. There are clearly
questions about the government’s complicity, either by commission or omission.
The Mexican case has transnational implications. Small arms smuggled into Mex-
ico from the United States fuel the vio lence; gang vio lence crosses the border into
American cities; American tourists are staying away from Mexican resorts, with adverse
effects on the economy. Many states are finding it very difficult to control and punish
the transgressors, undermining their own sovereignty and that of their neighbors.
fragile states
Fragile states include those having several characteristics: an inability to exercise a
mono poly on the legitimate use of force within its territory, make collective deci-
sions because of the erosion of legitimate authority, interact with other states in the
international system, or provide public ser vices.^28 The notion of such a state entered
the po liti cal lexicon in 1992 under the rubric of a failed state with Somalia as exemplary.