About the project
ʻCombat[ing] all forms of organized crimeʼ has become a priority for international policy enshrined in United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.4. The assumption underpinning this objective is that organized crime is a spoiler of peace, security, and development, and therefore combating organized crime is necessary to enable peace, security and development. However, this assumption has been questioned by empirical research from (post)conflict and high-level violence contexts around the world: On the one hand, wars on organized crime rarely lead to actual crime reduction, while having a lot of harmful adverse effects like increases in violence and armed conflict, prison overcrowding, and the ʻballoon effectʼ, that is, the spread of smuggling routes to new places and regions. On the other hand, criminalized economies do not always lead to violence and conflict, but can also have pacifying, stabilizing and developmental effects – for example through providing crucial livelihoods to marginalized populations or serving as a bargaining chip in peace deals.
The Criminalized Peace project has explored, through eight months of fieldwork in Colombia and Mali, how, when, and why transnational crime control sometimes undermines peace processes, yet other times offers an opportunity and pressure for negotiated settlement between warring parties. One project result is how violence and conflict dynamics around criminalized economies are mediated through formal and informal agreements peace agreements between armed groups, states and international actors. The project has observed various dynamics which counter mainstream causal assumptions, with major implication for security, crime and peace policy-making. For example, the project found that 'drug traffickers' can sometimes play a key brokering role in formal and informal peace agreements, and smuggling routes may be displaced rather than attracted by armed conflict, thereby upsetting the established idea of a "crime-conflict nexus". Wars on crime, extradition orders, and drug war diplomacy, on the other hand, can undermine and even entirely disrupt peace processes.
Activities
Workshop on criminalized economies, armed conflict and peace processes
Time and place: 15–16 May 2025, Nils Christie’s Corner 8113, Domus Juridica, University of Oslo
The workshop brought together researchers from various academic disciplines to discuss the role that criminalized economies play in armed conflict and violence, and how they can be addressed in order to create peace.
Theme of the workshop
"Combating all forms of organized crime" has become a priority in international politics, enshrined in UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.4. TThe assumption underpinning this objective is that organized crime is a spoiler to peace, security, and development, and therefore combating organized crime is necessary to enable peace, security and development.
However, this assumption has been questioned by empirical research from (post)conflict and high-level violence contexts around the world: On the one hand, wars on organized crime rarely lead to actual crime reduction, while having a lot of harmful adverse effects like increases in violence and armed conflict, prison overcrowding, and the ‘balloon effect’, that is, the spread of smuggling routes to new places and regions.
On the other hand, criminalized economies do not always lead to violence and conflict, but can also have pacifying, stabilizing and developmental effects – for example through providing crucial livelihoods to marginalized populations or serving as a bargaining chip in peace deals.
The workshop discussed the role of criminalized economies in armed conflict, development, and peacebuilding in different regions of the world. The aim was to bring together researchers from various disciplines such as criminology and peace and conflict studies, as well as other relevant fields. The discussion at the workshop was intended to result in a special issue of a journal.
