Virginia Comolli

The Global Initiative Network

GI-TOC Staff Member, GIN Member

Head of Pacific Programme, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Virginia leads GI-TOC’s work across Oceania, overseeing research and engagement on criminal markets and actors, policing, governance and resilience, and leading the Oceania component of the OC Index. Until 2026, she was also a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University’s Department of Pacific Affairs.

Virginia joined GI-TOC in 2020, initially managing a programme on environmental crime, before helping establish its presence in the Pacific. Previously, she spent 14 years at the IISS, most recently as Senior Fellow and Head of the Conflict, Security and Development Programme, researching organized crime, violent extremism and conflict across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

She has also worked in private-sector intelligence, completed a secondment to the UK Ministry of Justice, and served as a Special Police Constable.

Photo Credit: Cj Swaby

Publications

Watson, A.H.A., McNeill-Stowers, H., Comolli, V. and Smith, G. (2026). As Pacific Islands wire up, scammers squeezed out of Southeast Asia are taking note. The Interpreter. Lowy Institute.

Comolli, V. and Amerhauser, K. (2026). Trade, ports and special economic zones (SEZs): understanding the infrastructure of illicit finance in the Asia-Pacific, Lighthouse Flash, vol. 3, Australian Border Force.

Thompson, N. and Comolli, V. (2026). Turning the tide together. Proposing a regional summit to confront the Pacific methamphetamine crisis. Pacific Security College/GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2026). Playing legislative catch-up. Drug law reform in the Pacific. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and Thorley, M. (2026). Policing partnerships in the Pacific. China’s law-enforcement cooperation with Pacific Island Count…. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2026). Connected but not protected. Online child sexual exploitation in the Pacific and why Fiji’s numbers matter for the region. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2025). Criminal Currents. Climate change and organized crime threats in the Pacific islands. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2025). Who’s policing the Pacific? As China expands policing partnerships, Pacific nations face trade…. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2025). Prioritizing the Pacific’s polycrisis. A call for collective action on transnational organized crime and regional security. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2025). Organized child sexual exploitation. Addressing motives and response needs in South East Asia. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and MacBeath. (2025). The Climate Change-Organized Crime Nexus: Building Pacific Resilience. Visions & Voices, vol. 2:1, March.

Comolli, V. (2025). Building Resilience. How to Counter Organized Crime in the Pacific Islands. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2025). Drug trafficking in the Pacific Islands. A situational analysis for the World Customs Organization Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO A/P). GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2024). Pacific islands are no longer free of organised crime. The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Comolli, V. (2024). Oceania’s spike in synthetic drug markets. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and Thorley, M. (2024). A crowded space: Foreign organized crime groups in the Pacific Islands. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2024). Business is converging with organised crime in the Pacific islands. The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Comolli, V. (2024). An Industry of Crime: Foreign businesses and illicit practices in the Pacific. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2024). Geo-politics, influence and crime in the Pacific islands. The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Comolli, V. (2024). Politics at Play. Geopolitics and Organized Crime in the Pacific. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2024). Plastic waste and criminality in Gündoğdu, S. (eds.), Plastic waste trade: A colonialist means of pollution transfer. Springer-Nature.

Comolli, V. (2023). First Responders The role of civil society in Pacific Island countries. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2022). Strengthening law enforcement networks in the South Pacific. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and MacBeath, A. (2022). Special Section Introduction: Exploring the Nexus between Human Vulnerabilities and Environmental Crime. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development, vol. 4, issue 1, 1–7.

Comolli, V. (2022). An end to plastic pollution?. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. (2021). Organized crime during and after the pandemic in Varin, C. (eds.), Global Security in Times of Covid-19: Brave New World?. Palgrave Macmillan.

Comolli, V. 2021. Plastic for profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and Rose, N. (2021). China’s New silk Road: Navigating the organized crime risk. GI-TOC.

Comolli, V. and Grandi, F. (eds.). (2020). The Armed Conflict Survey 2020. International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Comolli, V. (2019). Niger: Curtailing migration has unintended consequences. The Africa Report.

Comolli, V. (2019). Urban Warfare: Stabilisation of Cities in Gervais, V. and van Genugten, S. (eds.), Stabilising the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Palgrave.

Comolli, V. (2019). West Africa and the Sahel in Counter Terrorism Yearbook 2019. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Comolli, V. eds. (2018). Organized Crime and Illicit Trade: How to Respond to This Strategic Challenge in Old and New Domains. Palgrave Macmillan.

A full list of publications can be found on Virginia’s LinkedIn profile.

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The Global Initiative Network

GI-TOC Staff Member, GIN Member