This document discusses the threats that transnational organized crime poses to peace operations and development. It notes the UN Secretary-General's concerns about drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau weakening the country's ability to promote peace. The document also discusses how conflicts feed on activities like narcotics, piracy, and gender violence, leaving instability. It outlines the West Africa Coast Initiative launched in 2009 to address organized crime in West Africa, including establishing Transnational Crime Units in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau. The document calls for more research and understanding of issues like youth gangs and organized crime to most effectively promote security and development.

1. Peace Operations and Organised Crime:
Building Capabilities to Confront Criminal
Networks and Promote Development
Professor Andrew Goldsmith
Executive Director
Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention
University of Wollongong

6. Transnational crime – threat to peace
• “I remain particularly • Report of the UN Secretary-
concerned about drug- General on developments in
trafficking activities in Guinea-Bissau, 17 June
Guinea-Bissau. The country’s 2011, p.14
very limited resources and
means to curb this threat to
peacebuilding and to
combat the illegal trafficking
is worrisome, as the
absence of reliable
information.”

7. Insecurity and illegality – obstacles to
development
• “conflicts feed on narcotics,
piracy and gender violence,
and leave refugees and
broken infrastructure in their
wake”
• “There are places where
fragile states can seek help to
build an army, but we do not
yet have similar resources for
building police forces or
correction systems”
[Robert Zoellick, Preface, WDR 2011]

8. Forms of Action
Public
Environmental Crime Youth Gangs
Private
Arms Trade Corruption
Human Trafficking Criminal Violence
Drug Trafficking Piracy
Terrorist Actions Organised Crime in ML
Conflict-Affected
States
Diverted, Implicated
Diverted Development
Peace Operations
Degraded Institutions
Vulnerable persons
of Governance
Women and Police
Children
Courts and Corrections
Drug
Consumers
Displaced Government
Harms Caused Persons

9. West Africa Coast Initiative
• WACI launched in 2009 by UNODC,
UNDPKO, UNDPA, UNOWA and INTERPOL
in support of the ECOWAS regional plan to
address drug trafficking, organised crime in
West Africa
• Four pilot countries – Sierra Leone
(UNIPSIL), Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS),
Liberia (UNMIL) and Cote D’Ivoire (UNOCI)
• First High Level Policy Committee
(WACI POLCOM met on 21 June 2011
in Dakar, Senegal [picture]
• 27 October 2011 – first Program Advisory
Committee meeting (WACI PROCOM) held
in Bissau

10. Transnational crime units
• One key strategy of WACI: establishment of
Transnational Crime Units in Guinea-Bissau, Sierra
Leone, and Liberia
• In Guinea-Bissau, in addition to TCU, UN through its
Peacebuilding Commission has contributed to capacity-
building judges, prosecutors and police investigators in
relation to drug trafficking and transnational crime;
also working on critical infrastructure, SSR more
broadly, and international cooperation/mutual legal
assistance in criminal matters
• 12 September: opened “model Police Station”, 11 more
planned: gender, community policing focus

11. TCU structure
courtesy UNODC
National Police
Intelligence INTERPOL
NCB
Customs
TCU Prosecution
Immigration Gendarmerie

12. Serious Crime Support Units
UNPOL positions in each mission
Analysis & Operational Support
Support to PC, UNPOL & JMAC
Support to Host-State Police

13. “We need to know more” - McChrystal
“reliable data on youth gangs
• “We didn’t know enough and in the narcotics trade are
we still don’t know enough. virtually non-existent”
• “Most of us, me included, (WB/LAC 2011, p. 16)
had a very superficial
understanding of the
situation and history”
“This Report draws upon research
from a variety of fields…largely
because it is further advanced than
research on violent organized crime,
trafficking, gang activity, or
terrorism” WDR 2011

14. “The case against grand plans”
– Rory Stewart
• “If there is a lesson from all
these countries, it is that
there is no substitute for
detailed experience in a
particular place.
• “The best the west can do is
to rely on more people who
are focused on the specific
history and culture…, more
attentive to the realities of
rural life.

15. Characteristics of OC
Responses
Containment Transformation
National Security Human Security
Police and Military Human Security
Intelligence Intelligence
Police Skills Diverse Skills
Short-term Focus Longer-term Focus
Stop Immediate Build Conditions for
Harm Security Resilience
Abstract Embedded
Community Support Community Support
Tactical Success Strategic Success

16. “As long as we cannot up-level our ‘thinking’
beyond Us and Them, the goodies and the
baddies, it will go on and on”[RD Laing]
THE END