CORRUPTION

Interview with Professor Louise Shelley
Another issue that we are looking at is in
antiquities that are being stolen from Iraq and
Syria. Seeing antiquities and visiting ancient
communities and sites were a major rationale
why tourists came to Syria. Apart from the
destruction of cultural legacy by the looting,
if you also destroy this cultural heritage, you
are destroying one of the important drivers for
economic development. Not only will the tourists
not come in the future when there is peace but
the jobs and the employment that comes along
with the tourism industry will not be created.
What would you prescribe for tackling
issues that you have identified in Dirty
Entanglements?
ways developed to foster a “whole of society
approach” to terrorism that incorporates the
skills and insights of business, civil society and
journalists. We also need to encourage citizens
to be responsible consumers and not buy things
that are suspiciously cheap. It is these items
that help support criminal and terrorist networks.
There is a role for many different participants in
our society, not just for government to oppose
terrorism.
We’ve discussed a few regional terrorist
trouble spots that were identified in Dirty
Entanglements. Are there currently any
hotspots that are not receiving enough
attention?
International Affairs Forum
There is a lot that can be done. Countering dirty
entanglements requires a very diverse approach
that is not just a military strategy. The way we
have been attacking ISIS’s oil fields through a
military approach is just one piece of the puzzle.
Understanding illicit trade and its role is an
important aspect. There are many parts of
the international business community that
are involved in transporting things that they
should not be. There needs to be much greater
engagement with the private sector. This is
not only because the private sector needs to
monitor what it is doing more, but businesses
also notice trade anomalies. In my research, I
have heard many examples of business leaders
in the private sector bringing trade anomalies to
the attention of governmental authorities when
they were convinced that specific incidences of
illicit trade were linked to terrorism. A mechanism
for governments to use and respond to these
insights was not available.
In the United States, we keep saying we
need to attack these problems with a whole
of government approach. There need to be
I think we need to be thinking more about
megacities and their problems as more and
more people gather in concentrated urban areas
that do not have the resources for them. We
are also not looking enough at hotspots in Latin
America, Africa, and the South China Sea area,
which have always been a contentious area
with a long, strong history of piracy and illicit
activity that continues today. Instead, our focus
is mainly about the Middle East. For example,
in Venezuela, we are focusing on their political
problems and leadership, but there are also
many more other problems and linkages with
crime, terrorism, and corruption.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
traceability and recovery of nuclear material
has been a concern. How considerable does
this problem currently exist?
A lot of the nuclear materials that were in the
Soviet Union have been controlled. There is not
one hundred percent control but there has been
progress in that area.
However, there are other pieces of the problem
34