Each issue of the Journal features a Forum section that brings together academics, policymakers, and other professionals in the field to analyze a single issue in-depth. By examining the topic from a unique perspective, each Forum contributor incorporates his or her own personal experiences and field of knowledge to offer Journal readers a complete perspective on the topic at-hand. Previous Forums have examined the issue of transnational crime, space-based weapons, and the intersection of religion and politics.

Criminals have exploited borders for as long as the divisions have existed. New technologies and booming international trade allow them to do this on an unprecedented scale. Transnational crime has become a threat to global stability, consuming whole states and slowing the growth of healthy, liberal institutions. Its eddects stretch from disease and drug addiction to corruption, slavery, and even a potential nuclear attach. We cannot hope to eradicate transnational crime; however, through concerted international action, we can mitigate its impact and stem its destabilizing effects. This Forum details measure to help the world control transnational crime and ensure that the world's interconnectedness remains one of its strongest assets, not a debilitating weakness.

Ancient Evil, Modern Face:
The Fight Against Human Trfficking

By Terry Coonan and Robin Thompson

Among the evils that will compel the attention of the international community in the twenty-first century, human trafficking will rank as one of the most ubiquitous. Human trafficking, a new term for the ancient scourge of slavery, poses one of the most formidable challenges to global hopes for equality and human rights in the new millennium. Efforts have been under way for almost two decades to turn the tide against modern enslavers. Such efforts, however, have been uneven and have revealed startling gaps in the ranks of those who oppose this illicit trade. In order to curtail human trafficking, both the United States and the international community must redouble their current efforts, and in so doing, should take further advantage of the established infrastructure of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide. Even more fundamentally, the law enforcement paradigm that to date has characterized international efforts to counter trafficking must evolve into a model better grounded in human rights considerations. more...

Stemming the Contagion:
Regional Efforts to Curb Afghan Heroin's Impact

By Svante E. Cornell

Afghanistan’s heroin industry is one of the most intractable and far-reaching consequences of the violence that has racked that country since 1980. Producing on average three-quarters of the global supply of heroin since the mid-1990s, Afghanistan supplies the majority of heroin consumed in Europe and nearly all the heroin for Russia’s booming market. Even in the United States, a minor portion of the heroin con sumed is of Afghan origin. The human and material costs of heroin addiction have been significant worldwide. In addi tion, money earned from the heroin industry has been a pow erful part of financing rebellions. The Kosovo Liberation Army and the Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey are the best-known rebel groups to have financed their activities through the heroin trade.

The consequences of the Afghan heroin industry have been even worse for Afghanistan’s neighbors. Iran, Pakistan, and the Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have become major transit routes for Afghanistan’s opiates. Although many of these countries initially dismissed the transit of drugs through their territory as Afghanistan’s problem alone, they came to perceive this trade as a major and multi- Crime Goes Global faceted threat to their own social, economic, and national security.1 more...

The Silent Struggle Against Terrorist Financing

By Joseph M. Myers

In the more than three years since the 9/11 attacks, the “war on terrorism” has been fought on many fronts. Much attention has been paid to military action in Afghanistan and Iraq and to prosecutions and preventive measures taken by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security in the United States. Meanwhile, a somewhat quieter, complex campaign against terrorist financing has shown that financial intelligence, investigations, prosecutions, sanctions, and diplomacy, when carefully coordinated among national authorities and with the private sector, can make a meaningful contribution to the security of the United States against the threat of Islamist terrorism.

Going forward, U.S. policymakers should invest in building infrastructure, both in the United States and around the world, to deepen and broaden the role of financial intelli gence investigators and analysts. Contrary to the occasional claims of politicians, following and interdicting money will never “eliminate” terrorism or even “cut off” financial sup port to particular terrorist groups; so long as people are motivated to commit acts of terrorism, funds will flow to support them. Indeed, the level of financial support provided to a par ticular terrorist group may be a useful indicator of the depth of its political support, and vice versa. more...

Unraveling the New Criminal Nexus

By Louise Shelly

Despite the uncertainties that remain at the outset of the twenty- first century, one fact is certain: transnational crime in its myriad forms will be a defining global issue and a challenge to the international community. The growth of transnational crime is inevitable because of the rise in regional conflicts, decline in border controls, greater international mobility of goods and people, and the growing economic disparities between developed and developing countries. These factors have created an environment in which political terrorists and transnational crime groups can thrive with globalization. Despite the gravity of these threats, the international community is not effectively combating the rise of transnational crime. States and multilateral organizations are simply failing to impede the escalating risk of transnational crime. more...

Facing Double Jeopardy:
Nuclear Proliferation and Terrorism

By Jon B Wolfsthal

As the world’s only superpower, the United States has a major interest in reducing the spread and use of nuclear weapons. Only nuclear weapons can strategically constrain U.S. action overseas, and only nuclear weapons can realistically threaten the fabric of American society. Alarmingly, given the conse quences, the risk of a nuclear attack against the United States is increasing. In the near term, this concern focuses mainly on the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons by terror groups, particularly al-Qaeda. Traditional tools that have kept the nuclear peace, such as deterrence, are of little or no value against these terrorists. Therefore, the only hope for the United States is to prevent such groups from acquiring nuclear weapons. In the long term, the primary nuclear danger is a possible new wave of state proliferation that engulfs the Middle East and East Asia. As today’s international security is predicated on the existence of few nuclear states, the spread of nuclear weapons in these regions fundamentally challenges U.S. security.

As disturbing as these realities are, the spread of nuclear weapons is not inevitable, and more can—and must—be done to prevent it from taking place. Throughout the nuclear age, the United States has kept proliferation in check with aggressive, comprehensive, and focused policies. In the past thirty years alone, U.S. efforts have prevented and even rolled back proliferation in at least eight states. These successes have required the use of incentives, alliances, diplomacy, and, at times, sanctions.1 While not perfect, such nonproliferation efforts have enjoyed a positive track record. more...