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Tackling Traffic: International Cooperation against Illicit Trade
Unformatted Document Text:  Tackling Traffic: International Cooperation against Illicit Trade Asif Efrat Department of Government Harvard University Illicit trafficking is widely considered today as one of the most serious challenges to international security. To be sure, trafficking – defined as behavior that facilitates the illegal entry of persons or prohibited products into a territory – is hardly a new phenomenon. However, the increasing openness of the global economy has given it a significant boost. Financial and trade liberalization, improvements in communication and transportation, and the easing of restrictions on cross-border transactions have combined to create new opportunities to those involved in illicit trade. The result is a significant rise in the magnitude of the risk posed by illicit trafficking and a formidable challenge for states and IOs wishing to combat this activity (Berdal and Serrano 2002). International efforts against trafficking raise a series of questions. First, much of what we define today as illicit traffic was not criminalized a century ago and was not even considered a problem. What leads countries to criminalize certain markets and fight them through international cooperation? Moreover, even if some countries deem certain kinds of trade as harmful, the question is how this view becomes internationalized. Why do other countries come to accept the prohibitory position and take part in enforcement efforts against the proscribed trade? Finally, why does cooperation against illicit trafficking take the form of soft law, in contrast to the highly legalized regime for legal trade, the WTO? This paper, then, asks how anti-traffic arrangements are formed, what cooperation problems states have to overcome in order to establish them, and what explains their level of legalization. I will offer a theoretical framework for understanding anti-traffic cooperation and provide preliminary evidence in support of this framework. 1

Authors: Efrat, Asif.
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Tackling Traffic: International Cooperation against Illicit Trade
Asif Efrat
Department of Government
Harvard University

Illicit trafficking is widely considered today as one of the most serious challenges to international
security. To be sure, trafficking – defined as behavior that facilitates the illegal entry of persons or
prohibited products into a territory – is hardly a new phenomenon. However, the increasing
openness of the global economy has given it a significant boost. Financial and trade liberalization,
improvements in communication and transportation, and the easing of restrictions on cross-border
transactions have combined to create new opportunities to those involved in illicit trade. The result
is a significant rise in the magnitude of the risk posed by illicit trafficking and a formidable
challenge for states and IOs wishing to combat this activity (Berdal and Serrano 2002).
International efforts against trafficking raise a series of questions. First, much of what we define
today as illicit traffic was not criminalized a century ago and was not even considered a problem.
What leads countries to criminalize certain markets and fight them through international
cooperation? Moreover, even if some countries deem certain kinds of trade as harmful, the question
is how this view becomes internationalized. Why do other countries come to accept the prohibitory
position and take part in enforcement efforts against the proscribed trade? Finally, why does
cooperation against illicit trafficking take the form of soft law, in contrast to the highly legalized
regime for legal trade, the WTO? This paper, then, asks how anti-traffic arrangements are formed,
what cooperation problems states have to overcome in order to establish them, and what explains
their level of legalization. I will offer a theoretical framework for understanding anti-traffic
cooperation and provide preliminary evidence in support of this framework.
1


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