Osama bin Corleone? Vito the Jackal? Framing Threat Convergence Through an Examination of Transnational Organized Crime and International Terrorism

Author： Picarelli John T.

Publisher： Routledge Ltd

ISSN： 0954-6553

Source： Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol.24, Iss.2, 2012-04, pp. : 180-198

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Abstract

Nation-states and security planners continue to place a high emphasis on threat convergence, such as that which emanates from the links between transnational organized crime and international terrorism. The social and behavioral sciences are not silent on this topic. This article frames the existing literature on crime-terror interaction to demonstrate that threat convergence is more complex than policymakers and practitioners often realize. With terror and crime groups evolving to resemble one another, convergence is undermining the conventional wisdom that limited crime-terror interaction to short-term relationships due to divergent motives. The contemporary threat environment is promoting longer-term cooperation between organized crime and terrorism, in some cases resulting in hybrid organizations that merge elements of both. This article concludes by giving suggestions for future multidisciplinary research in this field as well as supporting the formation of new strategies to combat threat convergence.