convergence

Fighting Networks with Networks
Leveraging International Conventions
As transnational organized crime globalizes, the United States and other jurisdictions have
made great strides in globalizing the fight against it and also the corruption that facilitates it.
UNTOC (the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime) and its Protocols
for the first time require criminalization of a broad range of activities by crime groups, while
UNCAC (the UN Convention against Corruption), requires the criminalization of bribery
and other corrupt conduct and taking preventive measures. These two international legal
instruments complement each other to establish a broad, virtually global framework for intergovernmental
legal cooperation.
These instruments have already been used successfully by many governments to facilitate
extraditions, mutual legal assistance, the transfer of sentenced persons, joint investigations, and
special investigative techniques to combat transnational organized crime, but their reach must
be extended. By ratifying and, more importantly, fully implementing both UNTOC and UN-
CAC, jurisdictions not only demonstrate their commitment to staying ahead of the criminals,
but arm themselves with the assistance and information other signatory states can provide.
Ratifying the global treaty is not sufficient, however. The State Department encourages
and helps states strengthen domestic laws to deny criminals, their associates, and family
members safe haven and access to illicit assets including use of visa authority to deny visas for
entry. Out of UNTOC and UNCAC have come laws prohibiting organized criminal actors
and kleptocrats from enjoying the fruits of their illicit profits, including owning real estate, establishing
businesses, or investing abroad. To dismantle their networks, the State Department
aims to mobilize all available legal means to disrupt their logistics, supply chains, and army of
professionals—money launderers, lawyers, accountants, and others—who help move money
and bribe corrupt public officials.
Bilateral Cooperation: High-Level Meetings and Technical Assistance
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continue to have frank discussions
and elevate the importance of combating transnational threats with their counterparts, including
recently with Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil (through the Open Government Partnership),
China, Colombia, India, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and
others, with the goal of strengthening bilateral and international cooperation in areas such as
terrorism, organized crime, corruption, narcotrafficking, and threat convergence areas.
To counter transnational threats, INL has employed an integrated approach of U.S.
assistance programs, from traditional prevention, law enforcement, and counternarcotics
programs, to anticorruption, judicial reform, antigang, community policing, and corrections
efforts. In addition to a whole-of-government approach, INL coordinates effectively with others
in the U.S. Government who work with communities, civil society, and the private sector,
recognizing that security solutions require a whole-of-society approach, and also ensuring that
partner nations have the ability to protect their citizens and deal with crime and violence so
these issues are handled effectively by law enforcement and other means and do not become
global security threats.
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