Geopolitics and Organized Crime

The teaching aims to provide students with awareness of the growing importance of the geopolitical factor in the emergence and development of primary forms of organized crime, clarifying the role that states and their mutual relations can have (and often have) in generating or stabilizing crime scenarios. In the first part it analyzes the concept of geopolitics and its centrality in the unfolding of the history of nations and peoples. It points to its determining function in the formation and recognition of states and governments, in defining the spaces of action, legal and illegal, that they and their ambitions can enjoy de facto, up to the violation of internationally recognized principles and values, including human rights. Within this framework, the expanding phenomenon of mercenary armies is considered. Subsequently, the course considers and explores some historically exemplary cases. These include that of postwar Italy, whose forms of tolerance and even legitimacy enjoyed by the Sicilian Mafia thanks to the division of the world effected at Yalta and Italy's crucial geopolitical location are revisited. Or that, later, of the Balkan wars of the late twentieth century, reread through an analysis of the international forces in the field, including the United Nations, and the reflections of their conduct on the genesis and development of new criminal subjects (or on the opportunities opened up for pre-existing criminal subjects). Or that of the Hong Kong Triads and, more generally, the role of colonialism in the Far East in producing scenarios conducive to the development of illegal activities and their historical consolidation. In the second part, the course focuses on the Latin American case-particularly Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Brazil-and on two geopolitically declined thematic cores, such as environmental crime and human rights. With regard to environmental crime, the theme of criminal organizations' aggression against natural resources, their involvement in environmental conflicts and their relationship with states is analyzed, with particular reference to illegal extractivism and waste trafficking/disposal. In a second step, the relationship between human rights, geopolitical dynamics and organized crime is then explored. The aim is to develop in students an appropriately complex and knowledgeable approach to analyzing the causes of organized crime in global society and evaluating national and international strategies to counter it.

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.