Global Crime Governance: Towards a new Normative Order to Combat Transnational Nonstate Violence

Project leader and project manager: PD Dr. Anja Jakobi and Prof. Dr. Klaus Dieter Wolf

The project analyzed various forms of international crime prevention and how violent actors are dealt with. The focus was on which different international cooperation options are used and how effective they are. In particular, the role of non-state actors – such as business and civil society – was examined.

In a comparative analysis of different regulatory approaches in various areas of transnational organized crime and the use of violence by non-state actors, it was examined where, to what extent and under what conditions the effectiveness of global crime governance actually increases with the involvement of non-state actors and the practice of new, less prohibitive and more enabling forms of political governance:
Assuming that the challenges posed by transnational private armed groups cannot be successfully countered by strategies of securitization and criminalization alone, but that their causes can also lie in conflicts over claims to recognition and procedural or distributive justice, global crime governance could require a normative reorientation. This concerns both the content of regulations and the status attributed to private actors of violence – which can range from a criminal organization to a “co-producer” of peace-relevant governance services.
A comparative analysis of these approaches to combating crime in different areas (piracy, human smuggling and trafficking, money laundering and corruption, illegal arms trafficking and terrorism) was carried out on the basis of an inventory of existing regulatory approaches, which differ in terms of the constellation of actors and forms of political control. On this basis, mechanisms were sought under which certain forms of governance have prevailed over others. Finally, the relationship between the type of regulatory approach and its effectiveness was examined in order to generate policy recommendations for dealing appropriately with threats posed by transnationally organized non-state armed groups.

The most important publications in the research project include
Herr, Stefanie (2015): Non-state armed groups and international humanitarian law. SPLM/A and LTTE in comparison (Series: Studien der Hessischen Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Vol.29), Baden-Baden: Nomos (submitted as dissertation in 2013).
Jakobi, Anja P. (2013): Common Goods and Evils? The Formation of Global Crime Governance Oxford: Oxford University Press; Wolf, Klaus Dieter; Jakobi, Anja P. (eds.) (2013): The Transnational Governance of Violence and Crime. Non-State Actors in Security . Houndmillls: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jakobi, Anja P. (2010): “In Pluribus Unum? The global anti-corruption agenda and its different international regimes”, in: S. Wolf/D. Schmidt-Pfister (eds.): International Anti-Corruption Regimes in Europe, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 87-100.
Jakobi, Anja P. (2010): ‘OECD Activities against Money Laundering and Corruption’, in: K. Martens/A.P. Jakobi (eds.): Mechanisms of OECD Governance. International Incentives for National Policy-Making? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 139-160.

The most important events in the project were Jakobi, Anja P.: “Changing Coalitions and Practices in a New Security Environment.” Panel. ECPR Standing Group of International Relations (SGIR), Stockholm, September 2010; Wolf, Klaus Dieter/Jakobi, Anja P.: Panel: “Promoting Just Peace or Just Fueling Conflicts? The Ambivalent Role of Private Actors”, 28.08.2011 at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), 25.08.-27.08.2011, European Consortium for Political Research, Reykjavik (Iceland), 2011 and Wolf, Klaus Dieter (together with Susanne Schröter): “Cultural Approaches to Crime and Non-State Violence”, Cluster Workshop, Frankfurt, November 12, 2010.