convergence

Fighting Networks with Networks
Obama, “This strategy is organized around a single, unifying principle: To build, balance, and
integrate the tools of American power to combat transnational organized crime and related
threats to our national security—and urge our partners to do the same.”
The State Department is working across the U.S. Government to improve internal cooperation
and build domestic security and law enforcement networks to fight illicit networks. In
support of the SCTOC, the State Department is working to “build international consensus,
multilateral cooperation, and public-private partnerships to defeat transnational organized
crime.” This involves a broad range of bilateral, regional, and global programs and initiatives
that help to strengthen international cooperation with other committed partners.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
(INL), which is responsible for international counternarcotics and countercrime issues, leads
diplomatic efforts to raise awareness of the destabilizing impact of transnational organized
criminal activities to the community of nations and to strengthen global efforts to combat these
threats. Enhanced coordination enables the international community to dismantle criminal
networks and combat the threats they pose not only through law enforcement efforts, but
also by building up governance capacity, supporting committed reformers, and strengthening
the ability of citizens—including journalists—to monitor public functions and hold leaders
accountable for providing safety, effective public services, and efficient use of public resources.
CARSI, WACSI, CACI
At the regional level, the State Department is developing innovative partnerships with governments
through platforms such as the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI),
the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative (WACSI), and the Central Asia Counter-narcotics
Initiative (CACI) to coordinate investigations, support prosecutions, and build collective
capacity to identify, disrupt, and dismantle transnational organized crime groups.
In places like Central America, traffickers and criminal gangs now facilitate the flow of
up to 95 percent of all cocaine reaching the United States. CARSI will help to improve citizen
safety by reducing the ability of criminal organizations to destabilize governments, threaten
public safety, and spread illicit drugs, guns, and other transnational threats to Central America,
its neighbors, and the United States. In partnership with the Central American Integration
System (SICA), the United States and other donor nations and multilateral organizations
participating in the Group of Friends of Central America are working more closely than ever
before to ensure that citizen security assistance is well coordinated and aligned with regional
priorities set forth in SICA’s Central America Security Strategy.
West Africa faces a growing danger from transnational criminal organizations, particularly
narcotics traffickers, whose activities threaten the collective security and regional stability
interests of the United States, its African partners, and the international community. Illicit
markets and those who profit from them weaken public institutions, foster corruption, and
foment violence. To address this threat, U.S. Government agencies collaborated to create
WACSI. In consultation with African and international partners, the United States will seek
opportunities to complement and enable regional and national initiatives that seek to achieve
similar objectives. WACSI will implement a multilayered approach that will target certain
nations to strengthen anchor country capacities, invest in future anticrime partnerships, and
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