Dr Phil Williams: “The Mediterranean Connection: Criminal Networks and Illicit Economies in North Africa”

Dr Phil Williams is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught from January 1990 to April 2022.  In the first part of his career, at Aberdeen University, Southampton University, and Chatham House, he wrote books on Crisis Management, The Senate and US Troops in Europe, During the last 30 years his research has focused primarily on transnational organized crime, His most recent book is “The Mediterranean Connection: Criminal Networks and Illicit Economies in North Africa.” Aspects of criminal networks usually include the smugglers’ toolkit: concealment, deception, circumvention and facilitation   North Africa itself can be understood as a space of flows – primarily south to north, but also north-south (hazardous waste) and horizonal flows, cannabis from Morocco moves Eastwards while counterfeit cigarettes move from Dubai to the Atlantic and through Algeria into Europe.    Some international assistance is provided by Interpol and the United Nations agencies to counteract this.