Terrorism & crimeStudying the connections between organized crime, terrorism in Eurasia

Published 1 July 2015

Eurasia is a major international drug trafficking hotspot that supports insurgent movements and terrorism, and it is an important site where terrorism and transnational organized crime intersect, according to the grant application. The breakup of the Soviet Union, which eliminated some terrorist organization funding, and the U.S. crackdown on money laundering and financial operations that supported terrorism after 9/11 have led terrorist groups to rely more heavily on organized crime. The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded researchers a $935,500 grant to study the connection of organized crime, terrorism and insurgency in Eurasia.

Rowan University Political Science professor Lawrence Markowitz is among three scholars selected to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Minerva Research Institute to study the connection of organized crime, terrorism and insurgency in Eurasia.

The three-year, $953,500 grant to the researchers from Rowan and the University of Kansas will help the scholars determine connections between drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime in Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Russia. Their findings will help inform policymakers on American national security.

The study will investigate the nature of terrorism/criminal connections in a number of former Soviet countries. It will examine the conditions under which terrorist-trafficking alliances are forged and change and will assess the capacity of national and foreign governments and international organizations to prevent, monitor, and dismantle the trafficking/terrorism nexus.

A Rowan University release notes that Eurasia is a major international drug trafficking hotspot that supports insurgent movements and terrorism, and it is an important site where terrorism and transnational organized crime intersect, according to the grant application. The breakup of the Soviet Union, which eliminated some terrorist organization funding, and the U.S. crackdown on money laundering and financial operations that supported terrorism after 9/11 have led terrorist groups to rely more heavily on organized crime, according to the researchers.

Findings from the study will assist the Department of Defense (DoD) in strategizing ways to think innovatively about approaches to terrorism and conflict and the types of resources it deploys internationally, the grant application notes.

Collaboration with Kansas scholars
Markowitz is collaborating on the study with University of Kansas (KU) professors Mariya Omelicheva (principal investigator) and Stephen Egbert. The grant includes a $224,830 sub-award to Rowan. Markowitz’s research will focus on the capacity of national governments to respond to trafficking/terrorism in Eurasia.

Next spring through the summer of 2017, Markowitz will travel to Eurasia as part of his research of nine in-depth case studies that will assess the political, economic, and security responses of national governments to monitor, prevent and dismantle intersections of terrorism and trafficking within their borders.

Markowitz also will work with Omelicheva and KU graduate students to examine how international organizations and U.S. missions understand and respond to the terrorism and trafficking in Eurasia.