Crime & Conflict, UN - Security and Rights

Looking into the future: Transnational organized crime and UN Peace Operations

...At a moment when long-held global alliances for peace and security are being tested, the United Nations is undergoing a wholesale review of its peace operations. In 2025, it is undertaking both a peac...

Posted on 02 Apr 2025

Author(s): Summer Walker

Sanctions and organized crime, APA-Obs

Where does North Korea get its cash?

...On 12 February 2025, North Korea reopened to visitors, five years after closing its borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite political isolation, few trading partners, crippling food insecurity, ...

Posted on 31 Mar 2025

Author(s): Lindsey Kennedy, Nathan Paul Southern

Drug Policy, EAS-Obs

Collateral damage: Assessing substance use in Ukraine’s military

Collateral damage:

...Substance use among Ukrainian soldiers is driven by a complex mix of factors: physical pain, psychological trauma, pre-existing dependency, and the extreme demands of combat. While cannabis and legal ...

Posted on 28 Mar 2025

Latinoamérica y el Caribe, AR-Obs

Total Peace in Colombia: institutional architecture and challenges

Total Peace in Colombia

...The implementation of the Total Peace policy (TPP) in Colombia faces regulatory, institutional, and territorial challenges that limit its effectiveness. These reports reveal that the lack of an integr...

Posted on 27 Mar 2025

Author(s): Felipe Botero Escobar, Juanita Durán, Kyle Johnson, Mariana Botero Restrepo, Andrés Aponte, Lina María Asprilla Ríos

EUR-Obs

What lies beneath: Germany’s hidden organized corruption threat

...In February 2021, 16 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Hamburg –  Europe’s largest cocaine seizure to date. Since then, there have been numerous other seizures at Europe’s third-largest seaport,...

Posted on 26 Mar 2025

Author(s): Daniel Brombacher

UN Reform

Drug policy exposes splits in long-held alliances

...At last year’s 67 session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the UN’s drug policy decision making body, member states embraced the need for harm reduction in the global response to drugs. ...

Posted on 25 Mar 2025

Author(s): Ian Tennant

Geocriminality, Sanctions and organized crime, EAS-Obs

Geopolitics and illicit economies in the South Caucasus

...At a geographic intersection between East and West, the South Caucasus has long sought to work with, or contend with, external powers on either side of the compass. The countries in the former Soviet ...

Posted on 20 Mar 2025

Crime & Conflict, Geocriminality, JIED, Sanctions and organized crime

Of kingdoms and crooks: The rise of geocriminality

...Globalization, state–crime collaboration and tense geopolitical conditions have given rise to a troubling new phenomenon. More needs to be done to better understand this emerging threat and its impl...

Posted on 17 Mar 2025

Author(s): Martin Thorley