The illicit arms trade: Cold War and Post-Cold War

This article considers the principal changes that haveoccurred in the illicit arms trade across the Cold Warand post-Cold War periods. It discusses the changednature of demand and the sources and means ofillicitly supplying arms to areas of conflict. Througha number of case studies it highlights the declininguse of illicit arms supply as a foreign policy tool,and the extent to which involvement in the trade isnow determined more by profit than policyconsiderations, with all the implications thesechanges have for control initiatives.     

Examining international responses to illicit arms trafficking

Concerns about illicit trafficking in small arms andlight weapons have moved rapidly up the internationalagenda since 1996. Within about three years a rangeof international responses to this problem, and to theclosely related issue of small arms proliferation,have developed at sub-regional, regional andinternational level – in Africa, Europe and theAmericas as well as globally. This article examinesthe development and design of each of the maininitiatives in this issue area. It analyses thedifferent ways in which the problems have been framedin each agreement or programme, and the significanceof linkages between them. These recent developmentsare judged to be substantial. Despite the regional andinstitutional variations, the shared normative andprogrammatic elements appear to be sufficient tosupport the development of winning global coalitions– able to establish a co-ordinated internationalaction programme even if not actually to preventillicit trafficking in the foreseeable future.     

Organized criminal involvement in the illicit antiquities trade

From the ”glocal” perspective of a large sample of archaeologists conducting fieldwork throughout the world and working on the very sites of interest to looters, this paper explores the question whether and to what extent organized crime is involved in the theft and illicit export of archaeological resources. Two major findings are presented: first, archaeologists tend almost unanimously to consider that organized crime operates within the ‘global’ antiquities market, but when asked about their own personal experiences with looting on the sites where they work, many fewer report observations of organized crime; second, however, it is apparent that respondents’ conceptions of “organized crime” involve media-driven, stereotypical representations of mafia-style structures. Therefore, although in their reporting of observed local activities they do not provide substantial survey evidence of the presence of organized crime so defined, they do report appreciable “organization” among those who have looted their sites—which, again, they have almost unanimously experienced. This paper considers the implications of such findings for both the definitional debate on organized crime and the academic analysis of the trade in looted antiquities.     

Information-based trade in Russia and the effects of listing abroad

This paper offers empirical evidence about transaction cost in Russia. After relating empirical measures of information and liquidity to corporate characteristics, competitive theories about cross-listings are tested. Since cross-listings generate competitive effects on transaction costs, potential to affect price discovery exists. The results reveal a lower share of private information for cross-listed firms since more transparent accounting standards reduce the incentives to collect superior information. Robustness for the evidence presented in favor of the legal bonding hypothesis is provided by those firms which list with the highest Russian standards. Measures of information-based trade are lower and the likelihood of listing abroad is significantly higher.     

Small arms,big guns: a dynamic model of illicit market opportunity

Transnational illicit markets are deeply embedded within legal trade systems and thus should be affected by shifting market conditions. Applying a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM), this study tests whether variation in illicit market opportunity could account for changing relations within the small arms trade (2003–2008). Measures of market accessibility – changes in export activity, reporting transparency and the percent of the labour force that is armed – outperformed measures of weapon availability with the exception of involvement in armed conflict. Significant structural change in outdegree density and transitivity suggest the development of trade factions, and decreasing balance hints that leaders are emerging. With the pending de-escalation of US-led conflict in the Middle East, a flood of second-hand weaponry is about to enter the market. Continued research is required to further uncover how the legitimate trade infrastructure facilitates the illicit flow of goods.     

The scourge of opiates: The illicit narcotics trade in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This study seeks to provide an overview of drug trafficking in Iran, particularly as it relates to the Iran–Afghan and Iran–Pakistan border regions. Data were obtained from a systematic review of the academic literature and from open sources, including media reports and official documents. The Iranian government is credited with dedicating substantial resources to combating the drug trafficking. Despite these efforts, Iran continues to be the most significant transit country for opium and heroin from Afghanistan. Several factors are identified that help to explain why Iran, despite its efforts, continues to play a central role in the international drug trade.     

Decoding hidden darknet networks: What we learned about the illicit fentanyl trade on AlphaBay

The opioid epidemic, impacted from the proliferation of fentanyl, has added impetus to the need to detect fentanyl, sources of fentanyl, and places where fentanyl and drugs adulterated with fentanyl are available. Many darknet marketplaces (DNMs) have rules that ban fentanyl. However, it is unclear how these affect the fentanyl market. Using the AlphaBay DNM as a case study, we conducted mixed methods qualitative research. We scraped and analyzed data from the AlphaBay I2P website using, among other methods, content and social network analysis, to uncover hidden fentanyl networks. Our research highlights the next evolution of darknet marketplaces – the migration of DNMs from Tor to I2P and the methods that can be used identify fentanyl networks, irrespective of where sites are: I2P, Tor, or multihomed on I2P and Tor. Despite its ban in the Global AlphaBay Rules, our research revealed the sale of fentanyl on the AlphaBay DNM. Unlike previous studies, our findings predominantly revealed the covert sale of fentanyl on AlphaBay and predatory vendors selling illicit drugs, which unbeknownst to buyers, contained fentanyl. To a lesser extent, our findings identified the overt sale of fentanyl patches on AlphaBay. Although we examined only one DNM, the prevalence of the covert sale of fentanyl and the presence of predatory vendors underscores the importance of research that decodes the language of vendors who surreptitiously sell fentanyl or drugs adulterated with fentanyl or other illicit substances. The results of our research can inform strategies aimed at disrupting and dismantling DNM fentanyl networks.     

确定对俄经贸合作的主要领域,开拓俄罗斯市场

本文通过对俄罗斯市场的研究和分析,认为吉林省在开拓俄罗斯市场方面应增强紧迫感,确定经贸合作的主要领域,应在森林资源、矿产资源、农业资源、渔业资源、旅游业的开发和利用方面采取有利措施,有的放矢地开展与俄罗斯的经贸合作,提高吉林省的对外开放水平,带动国民经济增长。     

Supply and demand: exposing the illicit trade in Cambodian antiquities through a study of Sotheby’s auction house

Looters are reducing countless ancient sites to rubble in their search for buried treasures to sell on the international market. The trafficking of these and other stolen cultural objects has developed into a criminal industry that spans the globe. For numerous reasons, the small Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia presents an opportunity to ground this illicit trade in reality. This paper supplements previous studies that have detailed the pillaging of the country’s archaeological sites, and aims to better comprehend the trafficking of its artifacts, through an investigation of their final destination: the international art market. Of course, the global market for Cambodian art is wide, but Sotheby’s Auction House provides an excellent sample. For over 20 years, its Department of Indian and Southeast Asian Art in New York City has held regular sales of Cambodian antiquities, which have been well published in print catalogues and on the web. These records indicate that Sotheby’s has placed 377 Khmer pieces on the block since 1988—when those auctions began—and 2010. An analysis of these sales presents two major findings. Seventy-one percent of the antiquities had no published provenance, or ownership history, meaning they could not be traced to previous collections, exhibitions, sales, or publications. Most of the provenances were weak, such as anonymous private collections, or even prior Sotheby’s sales. None established that any of the artifacts had entered the market legally, that is, that they initially came from archaeological excavations, colonial collections, or the Cambodian state and its institutions. While these statistics are alarming, in and of themselves, fluctuations in the sale of the unprovenanced pieces can also be linked to events that would affect the number of looted antiquities exiting Cambodia and entering the United States. This correlation suggests an illegal origin for much of the Khmer material put on the auction block by Sotheby’s.     

Parallel trade and free trade agreements

Legal context. Free trade agreements seek to remove unjustifiedbarriers to trade. Normally barriers to trade are imposed bystates, such as quotas, tariffs, subsidies and regulatory restrictions.However, sometimes barriers will be imposed by private partiesseeking to prevent parallel trade (arbitrage) of their own products.The aim of this article is to examine the way in which freetrade agreements deal with private barriers to parallel tradeand thus to consider to what extent parallel trade is possiblewithin free trade areas. Key points. The article considers first the situation withinthe European Community, which has long supported parallel tradethrough its provisions on the free movement of goods and competitionlaw, before turning to the approach taken in the Community'sfree trade agreements with third countries. It carries out thesame exercise in relation to the United States and then considershow parallel trade is dealt with by the World Trade Organisation.Finally, as free trade agreements only seek to remove unjustifiedbarriers, it considers possible justifications for the differentapproaches before drawing some tentative conclusions. Practical significance. This article considers the impact whichthe overlap between intellectual property, competition law andtrade law has in relation to parallel trade. As well as reviewingthe current position, which will be of use to businesses andlegal practitioners on both sides of parallel trade, it assessesthe underlying justifications which are relevant to policy makingin this field.     

Dynamics of the Soviet illicit drug market

The demise of communism, Westernization, internal economic reform and the disintegration of the Soviet state create fertile soil for the growth of drug abuse and drug trafficking in (the former) USSR. Rates of drug abuse have soared since the mid-1980s, especially in the European parts of the (former) Union; also, organized interregional drug mafias have emerged to serve this rapidly expanding market. The (former) USSR does not now participate significantly in the international narcotics market as a consumer or supplier of illicit substances; however, this pattern of relative self-sufficiency could change dramatically in the 1990s. Convertibility of the ruble could result in a large flow of Western hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin or crack into European Russia. A rapid expansion of trade, travel and economic ties with Western countries will widen the pipeline for the movement of drugs. Finally, Moscow's weakening hold over the (former) Soviet Central Asian republics and Central Asia's generally bleak economic prospects correlate with an apparent massive expansion of drug crop cultivation in that region; if current trends continue, (former) Soviet Central Asia could well become a significant world supplier of hashish and opium products, during the 1990s.Research for this study was completed prior to the transformation of the USSR into the Commonwealth of Independent States.This paper was published as an occasional paper by the Kennan Institute of Advanced Soviet studies and has been updated since then.This paper was prepared for the Department of State as part of its external research program. Views or conclusions contained herein should not be interpreted as representing the official opinion or policy of the Department of State.     

Application of solid-phase microextraction to the profiling of an illicit drug: manufacturing impurities in illicit 4-methoxyamphetamine

This article describes the application of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to the recovery of manufacturing by-products and impurities from an illicit drug seizure. The preparation chosen for examination using this technique contained 4-methoxyamphetamine, an hallucinogenic amphetamine that has been encountered frequently in South Australia. Compounds found in the PMA preparation included 4-methoxyphenol, 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, 4-methoxyphenyl-2-propanone, 4-methoxyphenyl-2-propanol, 4-methoxyphenyl-propene, and (tentatively) 4-methyl-5-(4'-methoxyphenyl) pyrimidine. The presence of these compounds suggests that the active drug was prepared from 4-methoxybenzaldehyde via 4-methoxyphenyl-2-propanone using a Leuckardt reductive amination. In this instance, SPME was found to be a simple, rapid, and non-destructive recovery technique that gave results complementary to those provided by conventional liquid-liquid extraction. There is an indication that SPME might find application in profiling of illicit drugs.     

The examination of illicit cocaine

A laboratory system of examination of illicit cocaine exhibits is described. Separation and identification of many of the components in exhibits are achieved by the use of capillary column gas chromatography and a Finnigan ion trap detector. Further examination and quantitation of the components of exhibits is achieved using two high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) systems. Both of these systems use identical reverse phase C8 columns. System 1 employs a solvent composed of 40% acetonitrile, 10% tetrahydrofuran and 50% 0.1% v/v aqueous triethylamine. The eluant is monitored at 280 nm. This system is preferred for routine quantitative analysis of cocaine and related alkaloids in exhibits. System 2 employs a solvent composed of 30% acetonitrile and 70% 0.05M phosphate buffer (pH = 5.0). The eluant from this system is monitored at both 220 and 280 nm. This system offers advantages in sensitivity. The relative retention times of a number of relevant substances as determined with gas chromatography and the two HPLC systems are given. The utility of the methodology for the identification and comparison of exhibits is demonstrated.     

商标权与商号权的权利冲突及解决途径

作为商业识别标记，商标与商号不仅用以区别商事主体和商品来源，而且还承载商事主体享有的商业信誉、商品的质量承诺。商标与商号本身具有的宣传和促销功能在激烈的市场竞争中所发挥的效用更是不可低估。随着市场经济发展和竞争加剧，企业为了争夺市场、扩大影响导致了商标权与商号权的权利冲突不断发生且有加剧之势。因此，如何完善商标、商号立法及相互间的协调，寻求商标权与商号权权利冲突……     

Yield of illicit indoor cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands

To obtain a reliable estimation on the yield of illicit indoor cannabis cultivation in The Netherlands, cannabis plants confiscated by the police were used to determine the yield of dried female flower buds. The developmental stage of flower buds of the seized plants was described on a scale from 1 to 10 where the value of 10 indicates a fully developed flower bud ready for harvesting. Using eight additional characteristics describing the grow room and cultivation parameters, regression analysis with subset selection was carried out to develop two models for the yield of indoor cannabis cultivation. The median Dutch illicit grow room consists of 259 cannabis plants, has a plant density of 15 plants/m(2), and 510 W of growth lamps per m(2). For the median Dutch grow room, the predicted yield of female flower buds at the harvestable developmental stage (stage 10) was 33.7 g/plant or 505 g/m(2).