Anthea McCarthy-Jones

How do corrupt practices evolve into the almost complete criminalization of the state, and what are the conditions necessary for a mafia state to emerge? In this article, we trace Venezuela’s political trajectory under President Hugo Chávez and its causal connection to the consolidation of a mafia state under President Nicolás Maduro by identifying critical junctures that occurred under the administrations of Presidents Chávez and Maduro. These critical junctures first laid the foundations for the mafia state, albeit unintentionally, and then allowed and encouraged the criminalization of the state. The incremental abolition of governance institutions started by Chávez and continued by Maduro in the context of dramatic decline in oil production created an ideal environment in which criminal activities could thrive. By the end of this process, Venezuela had evolved into a complex kleptocracy in which no rule of law or institutions were capable of or willing to oppose the executive and its loyal military and irregular force allies. Thus, a mafia state is born.

The evolution of the transnational drug trade has precipitated an organizational and operational restructuring of organized crime groups (OCGs). This restructuring has produced a move away from formerly hierarchical and tightly controlled organizations, to more loosely coupled and decentralized network forms. But what has motivated the OCGs to restructure into more loosely coupled networks? Through an examination of the activities and strategies of Latin American OCGs, this article identifies market considerations, network responses to law enforcement pressure, and centrifugal forces within OCG networks as the key drivers of these changes. Despite this, OCGs still require some sort of organizational glue that connects and facilitates the activities of these decentralized networks. This is precisely why brokers are becoming vital actors in criminal networks. The data presented in this article suggests that brokers have assumed great significance in networks especially in relation to the ongoing linkages occurring between Latin American OCGs and with those in the Asia-Pacific.

This article contributes to the growing literature on dark networks through an analysis on the Australian neojihadist network (ANN). Through analysis of Australian terrorist cells, we present a visualisation of the cells’ structures to determine how individuals are connected within each cell and to the wider ANN. A detailed analysis of six separate cells was undertaken to determine the operations, structures, and interactions of individuals within each cell. A visual network is presented to demonstrate how six cells that span a 14-year period form an interconnected network of individuals linked by family and close friendships. The insights gained through the analysis of this dark network sheds light on the origins, evolution, and structure of the ANN and highlight the way in which Australia’s experience with home-grown terrorism has evolved into an interlinked overarching illegal network that transcends both geographical locations and individual operations.

México está experimentando actualmente una explosión en la actividad del crimen organizado la cual ha conducido a un número record de secuestros y homicidios a lo largo del país en 2017 y 2018. La escalada en la violencia es el resultado de una restructuración sistemática de los grupos del crimen organiza-do (GCO) en México que ha estado en marcha durante la década pasada. s

The current explosion of cocaine, illicit methamphetamine and fentanyl in the Asia Pacific is the result of increased collaboration between Chinese and Latin American organised crime groups operating across the Pacific littoral. These networks are connected through brokers that operate as channels between these discrete criminal. Recently, elements of these networks in the Pacific have begun to appear in the Indian Ocean region, demonstrating the cumulative reach of these criminal organisations. Australian law enforcement and intelligence officials will need to focus intelligence gathering activities on identifying key brokers in order to disrupt these criminal networks. Specific attention should be paid to emergent networks in the Indian Ocean which could prove to be the missing piece of the puzzle to understanding the scope and depth of these linked criminal organisations that operate across all four corners of the globe.

This article examines the importance of adaptive methods for junior researchers undertaking research in volatile and dangerous environments. Through the presentation of two case studies of the authors’ own experiences in the field, we demonstrate the way the use of adaptive methods is crucial for junior researchers to overcome unforeseen obstacles and day-to-day difficulties presented by field studies in volatile locations. Finally, we address the gap in the methodological literature on how junior researchers can best communicate adaptive methods in the methodology section of his/her research project

Over the past decade the power of drug cartels within Mexico and the ferocity of the violence associated with the power struggles between competing cartels have increased at an exponential rate.  While previously Mexico and especially the border regions with the US have been the key battle grounds in which Mexican cartels have vied for control of distribution routes into the US, Mexican drug cartels are now branching further abroad in an attempt to extend their operations.  This expansion has seen several cartels moving beyond a focus on regional markets to now access lucrative untapped international markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific.  It is in this context that Australia has now become a target of several Mexican cartels.  They have already established linkages that operate in the Asia Pacific and are further attempting to strengthen and expand these linkages with a particular focus on penetrating the Australian market.  These recent developments are an example of the way in which Mexican drug cartels operating as ‘dark networks’ have been successfully creating a global network that seeks to capture new markets, thus further extending their control and dominance of the international flow of illicit drugs around the world.

Over the past few decades, the operational arrangements of numerous organised crime groups operating in the Pacific have developed into sophisticated networks with shared objectives. The increasingly adaptive nature of these groups means that their illicit activities are no longer bound by discrete, local or traditional geographical locations. The December 2016 seizure [1] by Australian Police and Australian Border Force officers of almost one tonne of cocaine is a recent example of criminal organisations utilising network structures to move vast quantities of illicit drugs across the Pacific. These crime groups operate as a 'dark network', or in some cases, as a series of 'dark networks' that draw on the resources and skills of a variety of criminal entities located in distinct geographical locations across the region. This network approach allows criminal groups participating in these types of activities to maximise their ability to move large consignments of illicit drugs with relative ease across great distances while simultaneously minimising the risk of detection. Dark networks maintain buffers between different actors in the network and are characterised by divisions of labour based on flexible arrangements between multiple groups. Each group is neither superior nor subordinate to another group in the network. The lack of hierarchical arrangements across each network makes it extremely problematic for law enforcement agencies to identify and combat these entrepreneurial criminal organisations. This in turn creates a multitude of challenges for Australian policymakers when deciding on the best course of action.

In Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has lost the most iconic leader the country has seen since Simón Bolívar fought for independence from Spain. The rest of the world has lost one of the most polarising leaders of the 21st century.

While some Venezuelan mourners took to the streets to express their grief yesterday, others will be looking forward to a new future without the divisive politician at the nation’s helm.

Venezuela without Chávez is hard to envisage while the flags still fly at half mast in Caracas. But we can look back to see how the man who famously stood up at the UN and called George Bush “the devil” came to inspire, and eventually divide, his people back home.

For Australia, the emergence of Mexican drug cartels presents signifi cant policymaking, intelligence and strategic challenges. The size of these operations, their resource base and the fl uid nature of dark network structures makes these enterprise syndicates a highly versatile and resilient opponent. This paper will provide an analysis of the organisational levels of dark networks in dealing with Mexican drug cartels and explores how these profi t-seeking transnational actors form and operate including their motivations and modus operandi. It will also address the problematic nature of dark networks and the importance of robust intelligence collection and analysis capabilities to better prioritise border protection responses as well as to increase the ability of the security sector to target dispersed ‘webs’ of illicit affi liations, with a focus on the Asia-Pacifi c region.

que, más que el deseo de un nuevo avance en la organización obrera, indica la inseguridad e inestabilidad estructural de las bases obreras en esta época. El llamado a la unidad es más un intento de exorcismo simbólico ante la material división de las diferentes organizaciones político-sindicales en los últimos años del cardenismo. Una tensión constante con la que Lear termina su libro y que refleja magistralmente en el relato de cómo el mural Retrato de la burguesía (1939-40) se lleva a cabo. El mural debe ser pintado en la nueva sede del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) y es pensado para representar el culmen de la esencia proletaria mexicana. Esta esencia se articula ya en oposición a la burguesía—en las representaciones de la cultura obrera el simbolismo ideológico está habitualmente vertebrado por constantes contraposiciones. Y esto ocurre justo en el momento cuando el presidente Cárdenas está virando hacia un consenso de centro que culminará en la fundación del Partido Revolucionario Mexicano y la marginalización política del PCM. El encargo estuvo así envuelto en numerosas tensiones y en una negociación constante entre lo que los artistas debían o no incluir en la pintura. Con el primer intento de asesinato de Trotsky de fondo, en el que Luis Arenal, uno de los artistas que contribuía al mural, se ve envuelto, Siqueiros y Pujol abandonan el proyecto como culmen a continuadas disputas. Tras el asesinato de Trotsky en agosto de 1940, Josep Renau, artista español exiliado en México, es el encargado de terminar el proyecto. El SME negocia un último cambio con Renau donde cualquier representación de la lucha anti-fascista en la Guerra Civil Española debe ser obviada. Este cambio particularmente doloroso para Renau, cuyos lazos tanto políticos como emocionales con la España republicana eran más que evidentes para los líderes del SME, pero que ejemplifica a la perfección las dinámicas de tensión constante en la cultura proletaria de la primera mitad de siglo XX. Como nos recuerda Lear en las últimas páginas, estas tensiones son una parte esencial del capital simbólico de la izquierda cultural contemporánea, una izquierda que sabe generar nuevos símbolos y nuevas representaciones artísticas pero que también debería saber mirar hacia atrás para aprender de los errores cometidos. Este acto de vital retrospección es lo que supone la lectura de Picturing the Proletariat de John Lear.

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between policy transfer through time and the quest for political legitimacy in developing countries. It is concerned with instances where contemporary figures reach back a long way in history in the search for items that can be used to legitimate present or future political arrangements. The first part of the article broadly classifies the various ways in which time has been used, but acknowledges the relative neglect of the temporal dimension in policy transfer studies. However, in the process of the search for political legitimation in developing countries, there has been a regular use of policy transfer through time. This is explored in a detailed case study of President Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. From this case study, a four-stage sequence of policy transfer through time is constructed.Related Articles Holbig, Heike, and Bruce Gilley. 2010. “Reclaiming Legitimacy in China.” Politics & Policy 38 (3): 395–422. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00241.x/abstract Case, William. 2010. “Political Legitimacy in Malaysia: Historical Roots and Contemporary Deficits.” Politics & Policy 38 (3): 497–522. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00245.x/abstract Kane, John, Hui-Chieh Loy, and Haig Patapan. 2010. “Introduction to the Special Issue: The Search for Legitimacy in Asia.” Politics & Policy 38 (3): 381–394. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00240.x/abstract Related Media Bartley, Kim, and Donnacha Ó Briain. 2002 “The Revolution will not be Televised – Chavez: Inside the Coup.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id--ZFtjR5c BBC News Channel Our World. 2011. “Oil, Politics and Hugo Chavez.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ1DUkxy8Bk Este artículo analiza la relación entre la transferencia de políticas a través del tiempo y la búsqueda de legitimidad política en países en vías de desarrollo. Nos enfocamos en casos donde figuras contemporáneas hacen referencias históricas que puedan ser usadas para legitimizar acuerdos políticos presentes o futuros. La primera parte de este artículo categoriza de manera general las formas en las que las referencias históricas han sido usadas, pero reconoce el caso omiso que se ha hecho a la dimensión temporal en los estudios de transferencia de políticas. Sin embargo, durante el proceso de búsqueda de legitimidad en los países en vías de desarrollo se observa un uso recurrente de la transferencia de políticas a través del tiempo. Esto es explorado a detalle usando como caso de estudio la revolución bolivariana del ex-presidente Hugo Chavez en Venezuela. A partir de este caso de estudio se construye una secuencia de cuatro etapas de tranferencia de políticas en el tiempo.

ABSTRACT This article traces the shift in regional integration in Latin America from the ‘open regionalism’ of the 1990s to the current ‘post-hegemonic’ regionalism. We explore the contribution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez in defining and promoting a distinctly new approach to the Latin American integration project. Chávez played a crucial role in the process by setting the agenda of integration and by pushing the boundaries of regional debate towards ideas, institutions and practices that initially seem radical but are often accepted through the passage of time. The article elaborates this thesis by exploring Chávez's role in constructing the political and economic architecture that has emerged in the region over the past decade. While not solely responsible for these developments, Chávez was a driving force, a fact with pertinent and uncertain consequences given his recent death troubles and the uncertainty over the future of Chavismo.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of adaptive methods for junior researchers undertaking research in volatile and dangerous environments. Design/methodology/approach Through the presentation of two case studies of the authors’ own experiences in the field, the authors demonstrate the way the use of adaptive methods is crucial for junior researchers to overcome unforeseen obstacles and day-to-day difficulties presented by field studies in volatile locations. Finally, the authors address the gap in the methodological literature on how junior researchers can best communicate adaptive methods in the methodology section of his/her research project. Findings The authors argue the importance of embedding a first-person narrative into the methodology sections of the project as a clear way for a junior researcher to demonstrate elements fundamental to the data collection experience, thereby engaging the reader with crucial aspects of the research findings. Originality/value The need for junior researchers to draw on a greater degree of flexibility in the field when confronted by the challenges of conducting research in volatile environments is paramount to the success of the project. The authors offer, based on the experiences in the field, pragmatic techniques to addresses some of the “messiness” of field studies that allows the researcher to demonstrate the crucial importance of adaptive methods in the doctoral projects.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of adaptive methods for junior researchers undertaking research in volatile and dangerous environments. Design/methodology/approach Through the presentation of two case studies of the authors’ own experiences in the field, the authors demonstrate the way the use of adaptive methods is crucial for junior researchers to overcome unforeseen obstacles and day-to-day difficulties presented by field studies in volatile locations. Finally, the authors address the gap in the methodological literature on how junior researchers can best communicate adaptive methods in the methodology section of his/her research project. Findings The authors argue the importance of embedding a first-person narrative into the methodology sections of the project as a clear way for a junior researcher to demonstrate elements fundamental to the data collection experience, thereby engaging the reader with crucial aspects of the research findings. Origin...

The burgeoning literature on policy transfer has focused almost exclusively on the transfer of ideas, institutions and policies from one place to another. Little or no attention has been paid to policy transfer through time. This paper examines policy transfer over a significant period of time more than 150 years and how the items transferred have been used as the foundation of regime legitimation. The case in focus is Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez. He resurrected and reinterpreted the ideas contained in the writings of Simon Bolivar, a hero of the 19th century independence struggles in Latin America. The paper examines the ways in which Chavez appropriated and used Bolivar's ideas in a contemporary context to provide legitimacy for his 'revolutionary' regime. Using the data from this Venezuelan case, the paper also builds a model of stages of policy transfer that might be applied to other cases. Policy Transfer Through Time for Regime Legitimisation: The Case of...

Overview Over the past decade Mexican drug cartels’ power and the violent struggles between them have increased exponentially. Previously Mexico, and in particular the border regions with the US, were the key battle grounds for control of distribution routes. However, today Mexican drug cartels are now looking abroad in an attempt to extend their operations. This expansion has seen several cartels moving into lucrative international markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific. It is in this context that Australia has now become a target of several Mexican cartels. They have already established linkages in the Asia Pacific and are further attempting to strengthen and expand these — with a particular focus on penetrating the Australian market. These developments show how Mexican drug cartels operate as ‘dark-networks’, successfully creating a global system that seeks to capture new markets, and further extend their control and dominance of the flow of illicit drugs around the world. For Au...