Regulatory issues and their impact on organizational compliance

International Terrorism & Crime: Trends & linkages

Define "LOOSE NETWORKS"

Loose networks describe autonomous terroist groups that do not directly depend on state sponsorship. These networks operate covertly, using clandestine methods such as cellular lines to communicate and shield their activities from scrutiny, which makes gathering intelligence on their activities more difficult. Subgroups exploit local opportunity, allowing their leaders to simultaneously encourage terrorist activity and to deny responsibility.

The impact of the "Former Soviet Union and the Balkans"

Institutionalized corruption in regions such as the FSU and Balkans has not only domestic, but world-wide implications. For example, the Kosovo Liberation Army has used its connections with drug traffickers and international criminals to fund its paramilitary campaign against Serbia. Likewise, Serbian criminal groups helped fund militia groups in the Balkans. The Russian military has become so corrupt that many fear their participation in trafficking biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. About 200 of Russia's 8,000 criminal gangs now operate worldwide, playing a large part in the transport of narcotics. Russia has blamed gangs operating in FSU countries, Western Europe and North America and terrorist bombings that have killed more than 300 people.

3. Describe how "FRONT ORGANIZATIONS" operate and their impact on enforcement efforts.

Front organizations operate by creating legitimate institutions to advance their goals. According to Anderson, their actions have an impact on enforcement efforts by allowing criminals and terrorists "to launder illicit profits, draws investment capital away from legitimate business enterprises, undermines respect for the rule of law, and makes it more difficult for legitimate authorities to stigmatize criminal behavior."

Q2. Ending Nuclear Terror

1. What is the Crisis in Russia?

Russia has tons of weapons-grade fissionable material and thousands of warheads that are not secure. They are at great risk for theft, sale or diversion as financially strapped Russia struggles to pay their staffs, assure adequate security and maintain proper accounting of their nuclear materials. Further, Russia depends on the accuracy and proper interpretation of data from early warning radars to make rapid decisions regarding the launch of its nuclear weapons, presenting unacceptably high risks according to some.

2. What are the Present-Day Nuclear Realities?

Nuclear readiness threatens to lead to the use of nuclear weapons by either technical failure, human error, or unauthorized launch. Possession of nuclear weapons by eight states (United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Israel and Pakistan) is a stimulus for other nations to acquire them, creating the risk of a new arms race. Further, nuclear weapons are costly to society. The U.S. spends about $24 billion annually on its nuclear arsenal. Approximately 250,000 veterans have been exposed to radiation in military exercises and hundreds of thousands of other Americans have been exposed to radiation from the bomb plants and the fallout from over 100 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.

3. What are the Practical Steps to Reduce and Eliminate Nuclear Dangers?

Kimball suggests the following steps to eliminate nuclear dangers:

Ratify and implement the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The CTBT would ban all nuclear test explosions and severely impede the development of sophisticated new types of nuclear weapons.

Encourage Russian ratification of the START II agreement and immediately begin negotiations on START III. The START I and II treaties will reduce the number of U.S. deployed strategic nuclear warheads from 7,150 to 3,500, and the number of Russian warheads from 6,670 to 3,100. START III would reduce each country's arsenal to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads.