Geopolitics and Organized Crime

Teaching aims to provide students with awareness of the growing importance of the geopolitical factor in the birth and development of primary forms of organised crime, clarifying the role that states and their reciprocal relationships can have (and often have) in generating or stabilizing criminal scenarios.
In the first part it analyzes the concept of geopolitics and its centrality in the development of the history of nations and peoples. It points to its crucial role in the formation and recognition of states and governments, for the definition of legal and illegal areas of action, from which they and their ambitions can benefit de facto, up to the violation of internationally recognized principles and values, including human rights.
In the second part, the course takes into account and delves into some historically exemplary cases. Among them is that of post-war Italy, whose forms of tolerance and even legitimacy enjoyed by the Sicilian Mafia are revisited through the division of the world in Yalta and the crucial geopolitical position of Italy. Or the more recent case of the Balkan wars of the late twentieth century, re-read through the analysis of international forces in the field, United Nations included, and the reflections of their conduct on the genesis and development of new criminal subjects (or on open opportunities for pre-existing criminal subjects). Or that of the Triads of Hong Kong and more generally the role of colonialism in the Far East in the production of scenarios conducive to the development of illegal activities and their historical consolidation. .
In addition to this systemic perspective, specific attention will be given in the final part of the course to the multiplier effects produced, in terms of criminal outbreaks, by wars, terrorisms, prohibitions, and by their broader geopolitical contexts.

EXPECTED LEARNING RESULTS
-Knowledge and understanding of the nature and social quality of criminal phenomena in different areas of the world, and of the underlying reasons. In particular, the teaching exercises to recognize the role that factors of international politics have in their development, with varying degrees of intentionality.
- The ability to apply knowledge and understanding are developed above all in terms of the comparative recognition of the historical causes of the various criminal manifestations, and the analysis of their genetic or stabilization processes that can be explained by international political elements.
-Critical and judgment skills are promoted by confronting the many current stereotypes on the subject of organized crime; above all, critical orientations are encouraged both towards monocausal explanations and towards explanations that refer, on the contrary, to a generic and indistinct "complexity" of international factors.
-The ability to communicate what has been learned is promoted both in terms of writing (through the performance of written tests dedicated to general historical reflections or the autonomous analysis of recent case studies) and in terms of oral presentation, given the development however assured of final oral tests. In addition, the offer of additional opportunities is developed: articles on websites, involvement on a voluntary basis in meetings in schools or in associative training courses, etc.