PROJECTS
Here, you will find a one-stop-shop for each SOC ACE research project including publications, information about events and external engagement, media and contact details for researchers.
- Afghanistan
- Australia
- Balochistan
- Belgium
- Cambodia
- Canada
- China
- Colombia
- Djibouti
- Dubai
- Egypt
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Honduras
- Iran
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Lao PDR
- Libya
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Russia
- Seychelles
- Singapore
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South East Asia
- South Sudan
- Sri Lanka
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Turkmenistan
- UK
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- United States
- USA
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Zimbabwe
The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development
This research project examines how conflict-affected borderlands, like those between Myanmar and China, are intricately connected to development in metropolitan centres. It challenges the idea that these areas are marginalised due to a lack of integration. The project aims to inform strategies for addressing borderland economies and transnational crime.
Understanding State Threats
In the last decade, states have faced a rising tide of hostile activities from other states and their proxies, often referred to as ‘state threats’. In a series of SOC ACE-supported workshops in 2023, a taskforce of experienced experts and practitioners identified the need for a more nuanced definition of state threats. This project addresses the language used to discuss state threats or similar concepts (e.g., hybrid, greyzone), and, using a clearer conceptual framework, map out the current character of state threats.
The evolution of SOC and Development: Interactions in policy and practice
This research examines the evolution of thinking on SOC and development since 2011 and includes a policy review to understand how they’ve evolved as separate, and larger approaches. Key government officials engaged in the SOC-development policy debate since 2010 will be interviewed to identify government priorities to engage on the development/ SOC nexus, and the challenges that were faced at different times.
The Role of Financial Rewards for Whistleblowers in the Fight Against Economic Crime
This research analyses the impact of whistleblower reward programmes and scrutinises whether the concerns that have been raised regarding their implementation have eventuated in practice. Furthermore, it considers what factors have been shown to be necessary for such a scheme to operate as part of a wider strategy to increase the effectiveness of economic crime investigations and concludes with observations for policymakers considering the introduction of whistleblower rewards.
Smuggling along the new silk road: The role of Global Trade Hubs (GTH)
The project evaluates the role of Global Trade Hubs (GTH) along the maritime Silk Road in facilitating illicit activities, particularly smuggling, leveraging proven methods based on mirror trade statistics. By comparing these findings with existing assessments of illicit activities and flows, the project aims to provide insights into the potential risks associated with GTH involvement in illicit financial flows (IFFs).
Addressing security actors’ involvement in serious and organised crime
This reserach explores politically feasible security sector reform approaches to tackling serious organised crime, drawing on lessons of success from Georgia, Colombia and South Africa.
Power Brokers and Illicit Markets in the Frontiers: Balochistan, Borderlands and the Taliban
The project seeks to investigate how illicit markets shape and are shaped by the local political, power, patronage and frontier dynamics in Balochistan - the area spanning the frontier regions of three countries: Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Addressing organised crime and security sector reform (SSR) and governance: Linkages, processes, outcomes and challenges
The research project aims to deepen the evidence base on the connections between SSR/G and SOC – how they influence and impact one another, positively and adversely. It seeks to encourage collaboration across academic disciplines and professional silos, integrating SSR/G perspectives and programming into the fight against SOC and vice versa.
Illicit finance and Russian foreign policy: new dynamics and linkages
This project examines how Russia is using illicit financial flows (IFF) to support its military campaign against Ukraine and to further its wider foreign policy goals. The scale of Russian use of illicit financial networks has increased rapidly since February 2022. Unless effectively countered, Russia's use of financial and economic tools will give it an advantage in its war against Ukraine and may begin to pose a potential systemic threat to international financial and trading systems. The research seeks to conceptualise how Russia uses illicit finance in political interference and information campaigns around the world, and how these dynamics may be changing in the new context of the war in Ukraine.
Unlocking the black box of political will on IFFs: Going beyond technical responses
The harms on economies and societies are significant when proceeds of crime and corruption are moved unimpeded through the global financial and trade systems. As policymakers are looking to identify ways to respond better to illicit financial flows (IFFs), this research project seeks to better understand what enables IFFs, if there is political will to address IFFs and what interventions have been successful in addressing IFFs as part of a politically sensitive approach. The overarching conclusion of the initial research was that the line between business, politics and crime has never been more blurred. The research proposes a framework, the so-called ‘IFFs pyramid’, to explain the three dominant means by which IFFs are enabled, moved and held: financial flows, trade flows and informal flows. In its second phase, the research project is testing the use and applicability of this framework in East and Southern Africa and the Mekong region.
Assessing the effectiveness of sanctions as a tool to disrupt serious organised crime
This project seeks to address a number of gaps in the evidence base on the effectiveness of sanctions use by countries to tackle SOC. It aims to make a key contribution as an independent study of existing experience of using sanctions against SOC – and the lessons this experience holds for the UK.
Narcotics smuggling in a new Afghanistan
This research is part of the project ‘Monitoring the evolution of the illicit economy in Afghanistan’ which seeks to develop an overarching framework to better understand how a monitoring system for illicit markets in Afghanistan could operate. This will provide policy-makers in Europe and elsewhere with more advanced tools for scenario planning illicit trade developments and thereby formulate more effective policy responses against them. The research paper examines Afghanistan’s narcotics trade and smuggling patterns, which are intertwined in different ways with the economic fate of the Afghan state and society.
Evaluating Afghanistan’s past, present and future engagement with multilateral drug control
This research is part of the project ‘Monitoring the evolution of the illicit economy in Afghanistan’ which seeks to develop an overarching framework to better understand how a monitoring system for illicit markets in Afghanistan could operate. This will provide policy-makers in Europe and elsewhere with more advanced tools for scenario planning illicit trade developments and thereby formulate more effective policy responses against them. With the Taliban capturing control of Afghanistan, what the new regime will mean for illicit economies in the country, the region and the global community more broadly, and how they may evolve in the future, is the subject of this analysis.
Drug trafficking, violence, and corruption in Central Asia
Central Asia experiences minimal direct violence associated with drug trafficking, despite serving as a significant drug trafficking route, with 90 tonnes of heroin flowing annually from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe. The region is emerging as both a transit zone and producer of synthetic drugs, sourced from China, while the demand for heroin grows in Russia and Europe. This project aims to explore the relationship between police corruption, illegal drug trafficking, and violent tactics employed by criminal organisations and/or law enforcement agencies in all four Central Asian countries. The project analyses big data on violence, drug interdictions, and patterns of corruption…