Transnational Threats » (New Edition)

KIMBERLEY L. THACHUK is currently a senior research fellow in the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University. Previously she was a visiting professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Dr. Thachuk has published widely on International crime, terrorism, and other transnational threats to U.S. national security.

This collection of essays demonstrates how the security of Americans is potentially threatened by individuals and governments engaged in the illicit trade in arms, drugs, and human beings in distant parts of the globe. More than just a threat to Americans, the essays underscore that these activities are often detrimental to U.S. interests around the world due to the destabilizing impact that each activity can have on a nation or region. More revealing is how terrorists benefit from this illegal trade, generating critical sources of funding used for everything from recruiting to procurement of weapons and explosives of all types to extend and expand the scope of their struggle.

The scope of this work is truly global. Fourteen essays touch on prevailing problems from the Balkans to Southeast Asia and the Pacific; from Africa to the Caribbean, and more. In each essay, the authors explore a problem that not only has direct regional repercussions, but larger international ones as well. The essays present problems that result from these illegal activities as a global epidemic, not simply regionalized problems.