Gangsters and Statesmen: Organised Crime, Governance and Nationalism in Torn States

Gangsters and Statesmen: Organised Crime, Governance and Nationalism in Torn States 

Danilo Mandić, Associate Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Harvard University 

How does organised crime operate in separatist zones? I propose a typology of mafias in torn states in three regions: fourteen countries with separatist movements (four in West Africa, five in the Middle East, and five in East Europe) from 1990-2020. In these cases, I argue, territorial consolidation was vitally moulded by organised criminal agency. I stipulate two dimensions of variation: some mafias are more embedded in the state apparatus (state-dependent) than others, and some mafias are more ethnocentric (partisan) than others. 

Regarding state-dependence, I differentiate between organised crime that is largely controlled – often created – by host state institutions, and organised crime that largely operates autonomously. Regarding partisanship, I differentiate between mafias that are highly ethnocentric, and those that are less so. The resulting two-by-two typology includes "Mafias…