On September 5–7, 2012, the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C., The Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a German political foundation, hosted the second meeting of the Constructive Powers Initiative, held in Mexico City. The workshop, Global Governance and the Challenge of Transnational Organized Crime: The Role of the Constructive Powers, addressed questions surrounding transnational organized crime (TOC), and policy responses to it.
This report includes the conference agenda and participant bios, and presents the principal findings of the conference, concluding that: the current geographical breadth, level of sophistication and broad array of markets and activities that transnational organized criminals are involved in is unprecedented; there is concern about TOC among all the countries represented at the conference; organized crime has the potential to become a national security threat; outside help can only do so much to combat TOC; the complete elimination of TOC is not realistic; and strong leadership is required to make this issue a policy priority.
Simon Palamar is a research fellow with CIGI’s Global Security Program and a Ph.D. candidate at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University.