Francesco Strazzari | Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (original) (raw)
journal articles by Francesco Strazzari
Mediterranean Politics , 2023
A key security partner of the region for more than a decade, the European Union today faces growi... more A key security partner of the region for more than a decade, the European
Union today faces growing challenges and the potential failure of its policy
towards the Sahel. While the cycle of violence does not appear to be receding,
rivals such as Russia – but also Western allies such as Turkey or the Gulf states –
are building new partnerships in the region. Contesting the idea that exogenous
factors alone explain strategic shortcomings, we explore instead how the
evolution of EU initiatives aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism
(P/CVE) has contributed to strategic misalignments with Sahelian partners.
The choice of new international partners by Sahelian states does not
primarily follow from ideological reasons, but rather displays tactical ductility
and sensitivity to political costs and strategic opportunity. The EU assistance to
the emergence of a regional security model, based increasingly on securitization
and militarization through ambiguous, at times incoherent and self-
referential policies, should be examined to better understand the weakening
of political influence in the Sahel.
Trends in Organized Crime, 2022
How do we know what we (claim to) know about Africa's organised crime? Much of our understanding ... more How do we know what we (claim to) know about Africa's organised crime? Much of our understanding of the phenomenon is filtered through the representation of a growing threat carried out by criminal groups specialized in smuggling and trafficking commodities, who exploit vulnerabilities in state capacity (Interpol 2018). African states are often depicted as weak and possibly prone to criminal capture, thereby offering to sophisticated and powerful criminal cartels a soft belly in terms of interdiction capacity and effectiveness (for example, Naim 2012). The illicit trade of profitable goods and natural resources (timber, diamonds, gold, protected wildlife) typically takes centre-stage, fuelling a narrative that coalesces criminal networks, greedy insurgents and violent entrepreneurs. Within this framework, drugs constitute the quintessential illicit market, one that typically involves domestic and transnational criminal organisations, and armed groups vying for protection and extraction. Law enforcement agencies tend to consider any seizure of drugs as an indication of organised crime activity; the drug metrics that they produce are usually considered sensitive data, and therefore they are not easily accessible to researchers. For reasons that are not difficult to understand, those units that investigate the illicit drug business tend to perceive themselves as the bastions in checking serious crime: so much so that the law enforcement officers employed in 'narcotics units' often exhibit quite distinctive attitudes and special operational protocols. At policy making level, the genealogy of initiatives to counter drug-related crime has typically been presented as a core activity in the fight against organised crime (Nadelman 1990).
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 2022
What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investi... more What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investigate how transnational drug smuggling networks affect protection and extraction dynamics, and drive divergent political stability trajectories in fragile countries that otherwise exhibit structural similiaritiesi.e. Mali and Niger. Building on ethnographic evidence, we explore the hypothesis that distinctive peace-and state-building strategies result in different degrees of resilience vis-à-vis potentially destabilising factors. To explain variation in political stability we introduce the concept of 'hybrid state-sponsored protection racket', in which non-state armed actors are coopted in a protection assemblage under the tutelage of the state.
Parolechiave, 2021
(Abstract in English, text in Italian) Throughout the history of Western political thought, the c... more (Abstract in English, text in Italian) Throughout the history of Western political thought, the concept of peace has received far less attention than that of war, because of its constitutive ambiguities and of the special attention to conceptualise and justify war, functional to the pursuit of realist-especially imperial and colonial-political goals. Although it is impossible to summarise a complex reflection that, albeit intermittently, has resurfaced from its beginnings to the present day, an attempt will be made to propose a brief reconstruction of the relationship between the concept of peace and those of praxis and utopia, shedding light on specific moments in which the tradition of pacifism has been confronted with the need to act concretely in the real world in order to end or avoid war and with the need to imagine ideal worlds in order to escape the belligerence that characterises the coexistence of different political authorities.
The International Spectator , 2020
Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increas... more Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increasingly topical as it confronts the inter- national community with intertwined challenges related to climate variability, poverty, food insecurity, population displacement, trans- national crime, contested statehood and jihadist insurgencies. This Special Issue discerns the contours of political orders in the making. After situating the Sahel region in time and space, we focus on the trajectory of regional security dynamics over the past decade, which are marked by two military coups in Mali (2012 and 2020). In addressing state fragility and societal resilience in the context of increasing external intervention and growing international rivalry, we seek to consider broader and deeper transformations that can be neither ignored nor patched up through the framework of the ‘war on terror’ projected onto ‘ungoverned spaces’. Focusing espe- cially on the mobilisation of material and immaterial resources, we apply political economy lenses in combination with a historical sociological approach to shed light on how extra-legal governance plays a crucial role in the deformation, transformation and reforma- tion of political orders.
Contemporary Italian Politics, 2019
As in previous years, so too in 2018 the migration question dominated the Italian political debat... more As in previous years, so too in 2018 the migration question dominated the Italian political debate. The new ruling coalition announced a policy change based on the intransigent protection of maritime borders. Against the background of a decline in the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores, the year saw the imposition of increasingly tight restrictions on the activities of the NGOs involved in search-and-rescue operations along the central Mediterranean route. The closure of Italy’s ports, besides having obvious humanitarian implications, led to the displacement of migration flows, with repercussions for other Mediterranean countries. At the same time, the thousands of repatriations that were promised by the Lega (League) during the election campaign did not materialise. Rather than focussing on the government’s strategy in the domestic sphere, this article examines the continuities and discontinuities in the policy of Italy’s new government concerning the international dimension of the migration question, and it does so by focussing on the Mediterranean and African arenas. Upon closer scrutiny, the new government coalition built its policy on already existing trends, beginning with restrictions on search-and-rescue activities at sea, and a higher-profile role for the interior minister (the League’s Matteo Salvini) in issues that had once fallen within the remit of the foreign ministry. At the same time, the choice in favour of unilateral intransigence and the display of open hostility vis-à-vis Western European governments, together with the refusal by the Visegrad countries to accommodate requests coming from Rome, were reflected in Italy’s growing isolation in Europe.
Ethnopolitics, 2019
This contribution analyses EU approach to stabilisation. Looking at the cases of Libya and Mali, ... more This contribution analyses EU approach to stabilisation. Looking at the cases of Libya and Mali, the focus on emerging communities of stabilisation practices helps illustrate how EU investments in sector-specific capacity building are geared to the enhancement of sovereign prerogatives in neighbouring states that are experiencing domestic political challenges. Aiming to achieve a semblance of stability in remote borderlands, though, the outsourcing of Europe's security priorities—including border control and the fight against terrorism—has contributed to the ‘pragmatic’ legitimisation of dubious local partners who are not in normative alignment with EU principles, leading to the entrenchment of dysfunctional governance and patronage politics.
European Review of Organised Crime, 2019
Mateja Peter and Francesco Strazzari (2017) Securitisation of research: Fieldwork under new restrictions in Darfur and Mali. Third World Quarterly, 38(7), 1531–50., 2017
Knowledge on conflict-affected areas is becoming increasingly important for scholarship and polic... more Knowledge on conflict-affected areas is becoming increasingly
important for scholarship and policy. This article identifies a recent
change in knowledge production regarding 'zones of danger',
attributing it not only to the external environment, but also to an ongoing
process of securitisation of research resulting from institutional
and disciplinary practices. Research is increasingly framed by security
concerns and is becoming a security concern in itself, although
the implications are not readily acknowledged. To illustrate these
developments, we draw on fieldwork in Mali and Darfur.
This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imagi- naries and socioeconomic ... more This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imagi- naries and socioeconomic tensions in northern Mali, examining microlevel processes whereby extralegal and criminal economies have reshaped political and armed mobi- lization, especially among Tuareg who fought to draw the borders of an independent Azawad and jihadists affiliated with the MUJAO Islamist group who sought to abolish all borders. Secessionist, jihadist, and statist political projects must be interpreted in light of the dynamics of armed protection, extraction, and clientelist connivance under- lying processes of territorialization and social mobility in a hybrid regional order whose peripheral location no longer serves as a geopolitical insulator.
contributo a numero speciale di Questione Giustizia
As security continues to be a primary challenge in post-Qadhafi Libya, the availability of weapon... more As security continues to be a primary challenge in post-Qadhafi Libya, the availability of weapons to nearby opposition groups and armed insur- gencies is a source of major concern for Libya’s neighbours and the international community. Uncontrolled weapons proliferation and the rise of new armed groups have gone hand in hand across various conflict fronts. While what is known about weapons acquisition dynamics does not make it possible to establish a strict causal relationship, by observing variations in the various contexts, critical factors can be identified, such as the emergence of a protection market, the multiplication of tactical options and splintering processes, which facilitate comprehension of how greater circulation of weapons is related to regional volatility and destabilisation.
... more
Global Governance, 2012
How do informal and criminal economies transform over time, and what are the roles of armed confl... more How do informal and criminal economies transform over time, and what are the roles of armed conflict and “postconflict” intervention in this process? Based on four cases of contemporary statebuilding, this article ex- plores the persistence and pervasiveness of extralegal economies in the face of intrusive international intervention and reflects on the implications for state formation. It observes that acting beyond the law is no preroga- tive of unmodern locals sitting in the antechamber of (liberally assisted) formal processes. The type of hybrid economic governance that emerges from the postconflict convergence of various levels of authority is often characterized by the selective reproduction of extralegal economic prac- tices whose effects go well beyond the informal sector and crime boom typically registered in the immediate aftermath of violent conflicts. KEYWORDS: informal economy, organized crime, postconflict recovery, statebuilding.
How does arms availability affect armed conflict? What implications does increased arms availabil... more How does arms availability affect armed conflict? What implications does increased arms availability have for the organisation of armed groups involved in war against the state? This article explores these questions by looking into the civil war in Libya and the subsequent proliferation of weapons in the broader Sahel/North Africa region. Its argument is based on secondary sources: online databases, international organisations reports and news media. First, we examine the question of firearms in Libya in order to understand how changing conditions of weapons availability affected the formation of armed groups during different phases of war hostilities (February– October 2011). We highlight that, as weapons became more readily available to fighters in the field during this period, a process of fragmentation occurred, hindering efforts to build mechanisms that would allow control of the direction of the revolu- tionary armed movement. Next, as security continued to be a primary challenge in the new Libya, we consider the way in which unaccountable firearms and light weapons have affected the post-war landscape in the period from October 2011 to the end of 2013. Finally, we put the regional and international dimensions under scrutiny, and consider how the proliferation of weapons to nearby insurgencies and armed groups has raised major concern among Libya’s neighbours. Short of establishing any causal relationship stricto sensu, we underscore the ways in which weapons from Libya have rekindled or altered local conflicts, creating permissive conditions for new tactical options, and accelerating splintering processes within armed movements in the Sahara- Sahel region.
International Studies Perspectives, 2010
Violent clashes of June 2007 saw Hamas ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip, thereby making patent t... more Violent clashes of June 2007 saw Hamas ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip, thereby making patent the existence of a deep politico-military split within the Palestinian national movement. This article sheds light on the present face of the conflict in the Palestinian territories by adopting a historical-analytical perspective that emphasizes the role played by the availability of small arms and light weapons, as one of the many structural factors that underlie the transformation of the Palestinian struggle. Aware of the essentially contestable and reductionist nature of this endeavor, the authors examine the way in which the weapons acquisition process has changed in the time period from the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987 to the Gaza take-over by Hamas, 20 years later. In doing this, they extend the applicability of existing theories about the correspondence between access to weapons and the changing nature of insurgency, so to better understand a complex case where a national struggle has been spiralling into internecine violence and splintering, in what we may call “another Palestinian Nakba.”
International Peacekeeping, 2008
Since the late 1990s international state builders have paid increasing attention to fighting corr... more Since the late 1990s international state builders have paid increasing attention to fighting corruption in both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. On the surface this effort has brought significant results, since both countries have adopted legal frameworks modelled on the best practices of Western democracies. In practice, however, corruption remains rampant. This disappointing outcome has several explana- tions: in reviewing the empirical evidence we consider the two countries as cases involving heavily assisted transition from both socialism and war, highlighting how collusive practices between polit- ical and criminal interests have played a role in establishing formally liberal but substantively ‘hybrid’ institutions. We argue that the spread of corruption has been implicitly legitimised by international actors, who have pressured local parties to accept the formal architecture of good governance, including anti-corruption legislation, while turning a blind eye to those extra-legal structures and practices perceived as functional to political stability.
The fight against organized crime has become a top security priority for the European Union (EU).... more The fight against organized crime has become a top security priority for the European Union (EU). While a new policy area is emerging, it is difficult to understand who is in lead and how the process develops. This article delves into the post-Lisbon EU security model, exploring how Washington and Brussels collaborate in combating organized crime in a context of changing definitions, actors and policies. It argues that US definitions, operational models and policies influence EU institutional thinking and policies, shifting the emphasis from prevention and rule of law to execution and intelligence. The dynamics of policy convergence and divergence on criminal matters in the transatlantic community reflect tectonic shifts in the deepest levels of thinking security in the West, affecting the moulding of a European security identity.
African Security, Dec 2015
In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines not only th... more In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines not only the challenges for regional security and state authority in that region but also the processes through which regions are constructed by both local and international actors. It focuses especially on northern Mali and the various types of separatist, jihadist, and criminal networks that operate in this territory. The goal of this article, and of the special issue to which it is an introduction, is to illuminate emerging political orders in northwest Africa.
Mediterranean Politics , 2023
A key security partner of the region for more than a decade, the European Union today faces growi... more A key security partner of the region for more than a decade, the European
Union today faces growing challenges and the potential failure of its policy
towards the Sahel. While the cycle of violence does not appear to be receding,
rivals such as Russia – but also Western allies such as Turkey or the Gulf states –
are building new partnerships in the region. Contesting the idea that exogenous
factors alone explain strategic shortcomings, we explore instead how the
evolution of EU initiatives aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism
(P/CVE) has contributed to strategic misalignments with Sahelian partners.
The choice of new international partners by Sahelian states does not
primarily follow from ideological reasons, but rather displays tactical ductility
and sensitivity to political costs and strategic opportunity. The EU assistance to
the emergence of a regional security model, based increasingly on securitization
and militarization through ambiguous, at times incoherent and self-
referential policies, should be examined to better understand the weakening
of political influence in the Sahel.
Trends in Organized Crime, 2022
How do we know what we (claim to) know about Africa's organised crime? Much of our understanding ... more How do we know what we (claim to) know about Africa's organised crime? Much of our understanding of the phenomenon is filtered through the representation of a growing threat carried out by criminal groups specialized in smuggling and trafficking commodities, who exploit vulnerabilities in state capacity (Interpol 2018). African states are often depicted as weak and possibly prone to criminal capture, thereby offering to sophisticated and powerful criminal cartels a soft belly in terms of interdiction capacity and effectiveness (for example, Naim 2012). The illicit trade of profitable goods and natural resources (timber, diamonds, gold, protected wildlife) typically takes centre-stage, fuelling a narrative that coalesces criminal networks, greedy insurgents and violent entrepreneurs. Within this framework, drugs constitute the quintessential illicit market, one that typically involves domestic and transnational criminal organisations, and armed groups vying for protection and extraction. Law enforcement agencies tend to consider any seizure of drugs as an indication of organised crime activity; the drug metrics that they produce are usually considered sensitive data, and therefore they are not easily accessible to researchers. For reasons that are not difficult to understand, those units that investigate the illicit drug business tend to perceive themselves as the bastions in checking serious crime: so much so that the law enforcement officers employed in 'narcotics units' often exhibit quite distinctive attitudes and special operational protocols. At policy making level, the genealogy of initiatives to counter drug-related crime has typically been presented as a core activity in the fight against organised crime (Nadelman 1990).
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 2022
What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investi... more What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investigate how transnational drug smuggling networks affect protection and extraction dynamics, and drive divergent political stability trajectories in fragile countries that otherwise exhibit structural similiaritiesi.e. Mali and Niger. Building on ethnographic evidence, we explore the hypothesis that distinctive peace-and state-building strategies result in different degrees of resilience vis-à-vis potentially destabilising factors. To explain variation in political stability we introduce the concept of 'hybrid state-sponsored protection racket', in which non-state armed actors are coopted in a protection assemblage under the tutelage of the state.
Parolechiave, 2021
(Abstract in English, text in Italian) Throughout the history of Western political thought, the c... more (Abstract in English, text in Italian) Throughout the history of Western political thought, the concept of peace has received far less attention than that of war, because of its constitutive ambiguities and of the special attention to conceptualise and justify war, functional to the pursuit of realist-especially imperial and colonial-political goals. Although it is impossible to summarise a complex reflection that, albeit intermittently, has resurfaced from its beginnings to the present day, an attempt will be made to propose a brief reconstruction of the relationship between the concept of peace and those of praxis and utopia, shedding light on specific moments in which the tradition of pacifism has been confronted with the need to act concretely in the real world in order to end or avoid war and with the need to imagine ideal worlds in order to escape the belligerence that characterises the coexistence of different political authorities.
The International Spectator , 2020
Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increas... more Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increasingly topical as it confronts the inter- national community with intertwined challenges related to climate variability, poverty, food insecurity, population displacement, trans- national crime, contested statehood and jihadist insurgencies. This Special Issue discerns the contours of political orders in the making. After situating the Sahel region in time and space, we focus on the trajectory of regional security dynamics over the past decade, which are marked by two military coups in Mali (2012 and 2020). In addressing state fragility and societal resilience in the context of increasing external intervention and growing international rivalry, we seek to consider broader and deeper transformations that can be neither ignored nor patched up through the framework of the ‘war on terror’ projected onto ‘ungoverned spaces’. Focusing espe- cially on the mobilisation of material and immaterial resources, we apply political economy lenses in combination with a historical sociological approach to shed light on how extra-legal governance plays a crucial role in the deformation, transformation and reforma- tion of political orders.
Contemporary Italian Politics, 2019
As in previous years, so too in 2018 the migration question dominated the Italian political debat... more As in previous years, so too in 2018 the migration question dominated the Italian political debate. The new ruling coalition announced a policy change based on the intransigent protection of maritime borders. Against the background of a decline in the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores, the year saw the imposition of increasingly tight restrictions on the activities of the NGOs involved in search-and-rescue operations along the central Mediterranean route. The closure of Italy’s ports, besides having obvious humanitarian implications, led to the displacement of migration flows, with repercussions for other Mediterranean countries. At the same time, the thousands of repatriations that were promised by the Lega (League) during the election campaign did not materialise. Rather than focussing on the government’s strategy in the domestic sphere, this article examines the continuities and discontinuities in the policy of Italy’s new government concerning the international dimension of the migration question, and it does so by focussing on the Mediterranean and African arenas. Upon closer scrutiny, the new government coalition built its policy on already existing trends, beginning with restrictions on search-and-rescue activities at sea, and a higher-profile role for the interior minister (the League’s Matteo Salvini) in issues that had once fallen within the remit of the foreign ministry. At the same time, the choice in favour of unilateral intransigence and the display of open hostility vis-à-vis Western European governments, together with the refusal by the Visegrad countries to accommodate requests coming from Rome, were reflected in Italy’s growing isolation in Europe.
Ethnopolitics, 2019
This contribution analyses EU approach to stabilisation. Looking at the cases of Libya and Mali, ... more This contribution analyses EU approach to stabilisation. Looking at the cases of Libya and Mali, the focus on emerging communities of stabilisation practices helps illustrate how EU investments in sector-specific capacity building are geared to the enhancement of sovereign prerogatives in neighbouring states that are experiencing domestic political challenges. Aiming to achieve a semblance of stability in remote borderlands, though, the outsourcing of Europe's security priorities—including border control and the fight against terrorism—has contributed to the ‘pragmatic’ legitimisation of dubious local partners who are not in normative alignment with EU principles, leading to the entrenchment of dysfunctional governance and patronage politics.
European Review of Organised Crime, 2019
Mateja Peter and Francesco Strazzari (2017) Securitisation of research: Fieldwork under new restrictions in Darfur and Mali. Third World Quarterly, 38(7), 1531–50., 2017
Knowledge on conflict-affected areas is becoming increasingly important for scholarship and polic... more Knowledge on conflict-affected areas is becoming increasingly
important for scholarship and policy. This article identifies a recent
change in knowledge production regarding 'zones of danger',
attributing it not only to the external environment, but also to an ongoing
process of securitisation of research resulting from institutional
and disciplinary practices. Research is increasingly framed by security
concerns and is becoming a security concern in itself, although
the implications are not readily acknowledged. To illustrate these
developments, we draw on fieldwork in Mali and Darfur.
This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imagi- naries and socioeconomic ... more This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imagi- naries and socioeconomic tensions in northern Mali, examining microlevel processes whereby extralegal and criminal economies have reshaped political and armed mobi- lization, especially among Tuareg who fought to draw the borders of an independent Azawad and jihadists affiliated with the MUJAO Islamist group who sought to abolish all borders. Secessionist, jihadist, and statist political projects must be interpreted in light of the dynamics of armed protection, extraction, and clientelist connivance under- lying processes of territorialization and social mobility in a hybrid regional order whose peripheral location no longer serves as a geopolitical insulator.
contributo a numero speciale di Questione Giustizia
As security continues to be a primary challenge in post-Qadhafi Libya, the availability of weapon... more As security continues to be a primary challenge in post-Qadhafi Libya, the availability of weapons to nearby opposition groups and armed insur- gencies is a source of major concern for Libya’s neighbours and the international community. Uncontrolled weapons proliferation and the rise of new armed groups have gone hand in hand across various conflict fronts. While what is known about weapons acquisition dynamics does not make it possible to establish a strict causal relationship, by observing variations in the various contexts, critical factors can be identified, such as the emergence of a protection market, the multiplication of tactical options and splintering processes, which facilitate comprehension of how greater circulation of weapons is related to regional volatility and destabilisation.
... more
Global Governance, 2012
How do informal and criminal economies transform over time, and what are the roles of armed confl... more How do informal and criminal economies transform over time, and what are the roles of armed conflict and “postconflict” intervention in this process? Based on four cases of contemporary statebuilding, this article ex- plores the persistence and pervasiveness of extralegal economies in the face of intrusive international intervention and reflects on the implications for state formation. It observes that acting beyond the law is no preroga- tive of unmodern locals sitting in the antechamber of (liberally assisted) formal processes. The type of hybrid economic governance that emerges from the postconflict convergence of various levels of authority is often characterized by the selective reproduction of extralegal economic prac- tices whose effects go well beyond the informal sector and crime boom typically registered in the immediate aftermath of violent conflicts. KEYWORDS: informal economy, organized crime, postconflict recovery, statebuilding.
How does arms availability affect armed conflict? What implications does increased arms availabil... more How does arms availability affect armed conflict? What implications does increased arms availability have for the organisation of armed groups involved in war against the state? This article explores these questions by looking into the civil war in Libya and the subsequent proliferation of weapons in the broader Sahel/North Africa region. Its argument is based on secondary sources: online databases, international organisations reports and news media. First, we examine the question of firearms in Libya in order to understand how changing conditions of weapons availability affected the formation of armed groups during different phases of war hostilities (February– October 2011). We highlight that, as weapons became more readily available to fighters in the field during this period, a process of fragmentation occurred, hindering efforts to build mechanisms that would allow control of the direction of the revolu- tionary armed movement. Next, as security continued to be a primary challenge in the new Libya, we consider the way in which unaccountable firearms and light weapons have affected the post-war landscape in the period from October 2011 to the end of 2013. Finally, we put the regional and international dimensions under scrutiny, and consider how the proliferation of weapons to nearby insurgencies and armed groups has raised major concern among Libya’s neighbours. Short of establishing any causal relationship stricto sensu, we underscore the ways in which weapons from Libya have rekindled or altered local conflicts, creating permissive conditions for new tactical options, and accelerating splintering processes within armed movements in the Sahara- Sahel region.
International Studies Perspectives, 2010
Violent clashes of June 2007 saw Hamas ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip, thereby making patent t... more Violent clashes of June 2007 saw Hamas ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip, thereby making patent the existence of a deep politico-military split within the Palestinian national movement. This article sheds light on the present face of the conflict in the Palestinian territories by adopting a historical-analytical perspective that emphasizes the role played by the availability of small arms and light weapons, as one of the many structural factors that underlie the transformation of the Palestinian struggle. Aware of the essentially contestable and reductionist nature of this endeavor, the authors examine the way in which the weapons acquisition process has changed in the time period from the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987 to the Gaza take-over by Hamas, 20 years later. In doing this, they extend the applicability of existing theories about the correspondence between access to weapons and the changing nature of insurgency, so to better understand a complex case where a national struggle has been spiralling into internecine violence and splintering, in what we may call “another Palestinian Nakba.”
International Peacekeeping, 2008
Since the late 1990s international state builders have paid increasing attention to fighting corr... more Since the late 1990s international state builders have paid increasing attention to fighting corruption in both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. On the surface this effort has brought significant results, since both countries have adopted legal frameworks modelled on the best practices of Western democracies. In practice, however, corruption remains rampant. This disappointing outcome has several explana- tions: in reviewing the empirical evidence we consider the two countries as cases involving heavily assisted transition from both socialism and war, highlighting how collusive practices between polit- ical and criminal interests have played a role in establishing formally liberal but substantively ‘hybrid’ institutions. We argue that the spread of corruption has been implicitly legitimised by international actors, who have pressured local parties to accept the formal architecture of good governance, including anti-corruption legislation, while turning a blind eye to those extra-legal structures and practices perceived as functional to political stability.
The fight against organized crime has become a top security priority for the European Union (EU).... more The fight against organized crime has become a top security priority for the European Union (EU). While a new policy area is emerging, it is difficult to understand who is in lead and how the process develops. This article delves into the post-Lisbon EU security model, exploring how Washington and Brussels collaborate in combating organized crime in a context of changing definitions, actors and policies. It argues that US definitions, operational models and policies influence EU institutional thinking and policies, shifting the emphasis from prevention and rule of law to execution and intelligence. The dynamics of policy convergence and divergence on criminal matters in the transatlantic community reflect tectonic shifts in the deepest levels of thinking security in the West, affecting the moulding of a European security identity.
African Security, Dec 2015
In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines not only th... more In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines not only the challenges for regional security and state authority in that region but also the processes through which regions are constructed by both local and international actors. It focuses especially on northern Mali and the various types of separatist, jihadist, and criminal networks that operate in this territory. The goal of this article, and of the special issue to which it is an introduction, is to illuminate emerging political orders in northwest Africa.
This edited volume offers an in-depth and detailed insight into Project SAFTE’s research findings... more This edited volume offers an in-depth and detailed insight into Project SAFTE’s research findings. In-depth country studies were conducted in eight EU member states. The in-depth qualitative research methodology involved desk research and semi-structured interviews with key international actors and stakeholders such as Europol, EMPACT Firearms, Interpol, SEESAC and the Office of the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. The volume sheds ligh on how illegal firearms markets are structured in the EU and shows how terrorists access these.
Contributions:
- Strazzari F, and Zampagni F, Between organised crime and terrorism:
illicit firearms actors and market dynamics in Italy
- Strazzari F, and Zampagni F, Illicit firearms circulation and the politics
of upheaval in North Africa
This volume explores the continuous line from informal and unrecorded practices all the way up to... more This volume explores the continuous line from informal and unrecorded practices all the way up to illegal and criminal practices, performed and reproduced by both individuals and organisations. The authors classify them as alternative, subversive forms of governance performed by marginal (and often invisible) peripheral actors. The volume studies how the informal and the extra-legal unfold transnationally and, in particular, how and why they have been/are being progressively criminalized and integrated into the construction of global and local dangerhoods; how the above-mentioned phenomena are embedded into a post-liberal security order; and whether they shape new states of exception and generate moral panic whose ultimate function is regulatory, disciplinary and one of crafting practices of political ordering.
La scia sanguinosa di pulizie etniche, eccidi e ritorsioni lasciata da un decennio di guerre ha r... more La scia sanguinosa di pulizie etniche, eccidi e ritorsioni lasciata da un decennio di guerre ha riproposto l'immagine dei Balcani come "polveriera d'Europa". Anche oggi - mentre l'Unione Europea si allarga e si assume responsabilità di politica estera - la stabilità delle sue parti orientali è tenuta in ostaggio da nuove commistioni tra criminalità organizzata e connivenze politiche. Le nubi che esse gettano sul futuro prossimo impongono un ripensamento del ruolo svolto dalle economie clandestine nel modellare la guerra, il dopoguerra e le relazioni internazionali. Quelli che l'autore descrive qui, sulla scorta di una lunga frequentazione diretta della regione, non sono ladri di strada ma "criminali sovrani", in un mondo in cui tanto la criminalità quanto la sovranità sono in profonda mutazione. E nelle "storie nere" che racconta emergono collusioni prima ancora che collisioni fra gruppi etnici, fra legale e illegale, fra noi e loro: vittime e carnefici parlano spesso la stessa lingua e appartengono alla stessa comunità. Il lettore italiano troverà traccia di clientelismi mafiosi che ricordano da presso gli scenari nostrani. Ciò che accade di là dal mare, a est, non è infatti il prodotto di una remota patologia locale: nelle zone grigie della politica e dell'economia, lungo le periferie del continente, s'intravede non un pallido riverbero del passato, ma una sfida presente al cuore dell'Europa.
Dissecting the EU response to the 'migration crisis', 2021
Open access book chapter
Halvard Leira, Nina Graeger (eds.), The duty of care: protecting citizens abroad,
Simona Leila Talani, Roberto Roccu (eds.), The Dark Side of Globalisation, 2019
E. Bressanelli, D. Natali (a cura di) Politica in Italia 2018, Bologna: Istituto Cattaneo-il Mulino. , 2019
Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics, 2019
- This chapter examines the way in which changing forms of organised crime affect politics and th... more - This chapter examines the way in which changing forms of organised crime affect politics and the resilience and transformation of regional order. It does so by looking into deep-rooted socio-economic patterns. sheds light upon the nexus between organised crime and political (in)stability in the Sahel-Sahara region. It first problematizes widely circulating clichés of state capture in the Sahel-Sahara region. Next, it selects two cases along a continuum of violent power contestation: it observes variation in the historical pattern of domination and state formation in Morocco and Mali. Finally, by drawing on the interaction between organised crime, the 'way of doing politics' and modes of domination, the chapter sheds light on the resilience of organised crime itself.
Although the existence of foreign fighters is nothing new in the inter- national arena, the pheno... more Although the existence of foreign fighters is nothing new in the inter- national arena, the phenomenon has not yet triggered a substantial reflection in International Relations (IR) theory. A relatively rare phenomenon before the 1980s, foreign fighters have so far received little attention under IR. This state of affairs began to change in the spring of 2014, when a jihadist armed group that incorporates an unprecedented number of foreign recruits—the Islamic State (IS)—proclaimed a ‘Caliphate’ spanning large portions of Syrian and Iraqi ter- ritory and captured global attention by widely circulating to the media all sorts of terror tactics and war crimes it systematically perpetrates. This chapter seeks first of all to bring foreign fighters into an IR analytical focus by identifying those trends that make them a discrete actor category distinct from insurgents and terror- ists. Second, it addresses some of the difficulties in grasping the question from an IR theory angle, beginning with transnational mobilisation and State sponsorship. Finally, it reflects on how foreign fighters are involved in State-making/un-making, and how this affects movements in the tectonics of the international system.
The Handbook of organised crime and politics , 2019
This chapter sheds light upon the nexus between organised crime and political (in)stability in th... more This chapter sheds light upon the nexus between organised crime and political (in)stability in the Sahel-Sahara region. It examines how organised crime and political institutions interact and mould original forms of extra-legal governance that underlie trajectories of domestic and regional stability and instability. After discussing problems with defining organised crime today's North African contexts, the analysis targets empirically observable interaction patterns in cases as diverse as Morocco and Mali (as well as other illustrations in the region). Once case-specific deep-rooted historical and socio-economic paths are considered, the chapter highlights how organized crime has to do with the practices of governance, the structure of political systems and the resilience of the regional order, delving into those conditions that may contribute to its nexus with political instability and violent power contestation.
IS, Turkey, Istanbul attack, metaterrorism, Syria (in Italian, op-ed published in Il Manifesto 4... more IS, Turkey, Istanbul attack, metaterrorism, Syria
(in Italian, op-ed published in Il Manifesto 4 January 2017)
op-ed (in Italian) co-authored with Marina Calculli in Il Manifesto
published in Il Manifesto 14 Sept 2016
Egitto. In contesti segnati da violenza, fosse comuni e sparizioni, un cadavere martoriato fatto ... more Egitto. In contesti segnati da violenza, fosse comuni e sparizioni, un cadavere martoriato fatto ritrovare reca sempre un messaggio. Quello di Giulio Regeni svela cosa si annida sotto le narrazioni del potere in uno stato di polizia Chiunque abbia lavorato in contesti segnati da violenza, sparizioni e fosse comuni, sa che i corpi sono firme, e un corpo martoriato fatto ritrovare porta sempre un messaggio. Non sappiamo con certezza per chi, ma sappiamo che lo strazio del corpo di Giulio Regeni espone a corto circuito tre logiche che, nel loro legame intrinseco, ancora una volta svelano cosa si annida sotto la costruzione delle narrazioni del potere e del loro agire.
African Futures. Horizon 2025, 2017
EUISS Report 37 - September 2017 The objective of this Report – the outcome of a consultative pr... more EUISS Report 37 - September 2017
The objective of this Report – the outcome of a consultative project conducted in collaboration with external experts and research institutes – is to reflect on the major trends that will orient Africa’s future looking ahead towards 2025, and to identify the factors which are likely to have the most far-reaching impact on Africa’s economic, political and security trajectory.
EUISS Brief 21 - 2017 ‘Jihadist organisations [...] managed to co-opt local demands for protect... more EUISS Brief 21 - 2017
‘Jihadist organisations [...] managed to co-opt local demands for protection, redistribution and moral integrity by framing the revolt against corrupt neopatrimonial regimes backed by the West as part of the struggle for the global jihad.’
NB: This is a policy brief, sorry no references were allowed by the format. Updated 10 June 2017.
Exactly how transnational organised crime (TOC) poses a security threat that may undermine the st... more Exactly how transnational organised crime (TOC) poses a security threat that may undermine the state, including its societal institutions, geopolitical stability and economic prosperity, is a question that has gained traction in public debates over the past decades. And discussions about extra-legal governance – i.e. those political, economic and social arrangements that take shape beyond and against the law – are very much present in Africa, where states are often portrayed as defective. Such discussions are often articulated through dichotomies, such as fragility vs. resilience, good governance vs. ungoverned spaces, and legal vs. criminal activity. Frequently inspired by abstract templates and moral logics, these dichoto-mies sometimes rest on the use of loose concepts, and hardly convey the meaning given to them by those people who deal with them in their daily lives.
Over the past decade the displacement of narcotics supply lines has placed the remote and margin... more Over the past decade the displacement of narcotics supply lines has placed the remote and marginalised Sahara-Sahel region on the international drug route to the European market. Border control has become of primary importance, and an essential part of understanding the dynamics of competing political claims and armed movements.
Secessionist, jihadist and statist political projects in northern Mali must now be interpreted in the light of dynamics of protection and extraction. In particular, the customary system of the droits de passage (rights of passage) has been transformed by the leap in scale and nature of traditional desert contraband. New actors have arisen, while others have been sidelined as various groups contend for the protection of illicit trade.
This report explores the micro-level processes by which illicit economies have reshaped political and armed mobilisation. It explores the ways Tuareg traditions and grievances have been reconfigured under the influence of new illicit revenues. It also examines the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, a jihadist splinter group that took control of the city of Gao in 2012 when it aligned with business figures seeking to wrest control over trafficking from rival Tuareg groups. In this context, both nationalism and jihadism tend to mask acute social tensions in the region.
by Eli Stamnes, Randi Solhjell, Paul Troost, Cedric de Coning, Mateja Peter, Ingvild Gjelsvik, Jon Harald Sande Lie, Niels Nagelhus Schia, Kari M . Osland, Francesco Strazzari, and John Karlsrud
Global Society, Dec 10, 2022
European Security, Jun 30, 2014
African Security, Oct 2, 2015
ABSTRACT In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines no... more ABSTRACT In framing its analysis around the concept of northwest Africa, this article examines not only the challenges for regional security and state authority in that region but also the processes through which regions are constructed by both local and international actors. It focuses especially on northern Mali and the various types of separatist, jihadist, and criminal networks that operate in this territory. The goal of this article, and of the special issue to which it is an introduction, is to illuminate emerging political orders in northwest Africa.
Manchester University Press eBooks, Nov 2, 2021
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG eBooks, 2012
International political economy series, 2019
The Introduction sets the conceptual boundaries of the debate with which the whole collection of ... more The Introduction sets the conceptual boundaries of the debate with which the whole collection of chapters engages. On the one hand, it refers to the different strands of literature which have dealt with notions of informality, licitness/illicitness, legality/extralegality, and criminalization. On the other, it defines the fil rouge weaving together the book contributions around three main axes: (1) the social morality of crime; (2) the “people versus state” opposition; (3) informality and resistance.
Ethnopolitics, Aug 1, 2019
African Security, Oct 2, 2015
ABSTRACT This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imaginaries and socioec... more ABSTRACT This article explores the nexus between conflicting geopolitical imaginaries and socioeconomic tensions in northern Mali, examining microlevel processes whereby extralegal and criminal economies have reshaped political and armed mobilization, especially among Tuareg who fought to draw the borders of an independent Azawad and jihadists affiliated with the MUJAO Islamist group who sought to abolish all borders. Secessionist, jihadist, and statist political projects must be interpreted in light of the dynamics of armed protection, extraction, and clientelist connivance underlying processes of territorialization and social mobility in a hybrid regional order whose peripheral location no longer serves as a geopolitical insulator.
Trends in Organized Crime, Jan 24, 2023
Il libro ricostruisce l\u2019emergere di reti jihadiste in Medio Oriente e in Europa, gettando lu... more Il libro ricostruisce l\u2019emergere di reti jihadiste in Medio Oriente e in Europa, gettando luce sui nessi intimi che sostengono le narrazioni di sovranit\ue0 e terrorismo proprie della contemporaneit\ue0. Plasmato fra guerre e regimi repressivi, e amplificato da media e social media, il terrore controlla territori e al tempo stesso si propaga molecolarmente attraverso l\u2019emulazione. Nel contempo, sfidata dalla violenza jihadista e da altri fenomeni transnazionali, la sovranit\ue0 nazionale adotta risposte autoritarie, in Medio Oriente come in Europa. Ne emerge un paradosso: le premesse liberali dell\u2019ordine internazionale si scardinano, prefigurando l\u2019avvento di una fase postliberale a discapito di multilateralismo e \u201cglobal governance\u201
How do informal economies transform over time, and what is the role of armed conflict and 'p... more How do informal economies transform over time, and what is the role of armed conflict and 'post-conflict' intervention in this process? Has the nexus between criminal economies and state making changed in the global era? Far from being a collateral or temporary aspect, ...
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), May 3, 2012
International Spectator, Oct 1, 2020
Contemporary Italian Politics, Jul 3, 2019
Transforming the intractable : security-building along South-East European peripheries. DSpace/Ma... more Transforming the intractable : security-building along South-East European peripheries. DSpace/Manakin Repository. ...
Bristol University Press eBooks, Jun 4, 2020
This chapter refers to Francesco Strazzari and Alessandra Russo's reflections on recent devel... more This chapter refers to Francesco Strazzari and Alessandra Russo's reflections on recent developments in research ethics and risk assessment procedures. It draws on Russo and Strazzari's research experiences and their involvement in projects addressing institutional developments. It argues that there are two main tendencies that negatively affect research in violent and closed contexts. The chapter analyzes the securitization of ethics and risks and their bureaucratization and judiciarization. It argues that the combined processes of bureaucratization and judiciarization do not necessarily make research safer, but that they do restrict or prevent forms of much needed independent knowledge production on intervention politics in violent and/or illiberal settings.
New international relations, Jan 17, 2003
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Mar 29, 2019
- This chapter examines the way in which changing forms of organised crime affect politics and th... more - This chapter examines the way in which changing forms of organised crime affect politics and the resilience and transformation of regional order. It does so by looking into deep-rooted socio-economic patterns. sheds light upon the nexus between organised crime and political (in)stability in the Sahel-Sahara region. It first problematizes widely circulating clichés of state capture in the Sahel-Sahara region. Next, it selects two cases along a continuum of violent power contestation: it observes variation in the historical pattern of domination and state formation in Morocco and Mali. Finally, by drawing on the interaction between organised crime, the 'way of doing politics' and modes of domination, the chapter sheds light on the resilience of organised crime itself.
Contemporanea, 2008
Page 11. crea un archivo en la opción ex-post/ex-ante con el nombre PASTO, el programa creará la ... more Page 11. crea un archivo en la opción ex-post/ex-ante con el nombre PASTO, el programa creará la extensión REL. El resultado será PASTO. REL. Si el usuario crea un archivo con el mismo nombre PASTO en la opción de ...
Jacobin Italia no. 1, 2019
Il modello della democrazia sovrana nasce in Russia, sotto le macerie del collasso sovietico. Un ... more Il modello della democrazia sovrana nasce in Russia, sotto le macerie del collasso sovietico. Un mix di nazionalismo, pensiero reazionario, neoliberalismo. Dove chi dissente è un traditore della patria.
da 'Il Manifesto' 29.11. 2015 (con Francesco Strazzari)