Fighting Organised Crime as a Security Threat: The Lessons Learnt from the Case of Bulgaria

  • Katerina Gachevska Birmingham City University, UK

Abstract


The article discusses some of the implications of the post-1989 inclusion of the problem of organised crime into the international security agenda. The analysis uses the case of Bulgaria where organised crime was identified and handled as national security threat in late 1990s in conditions of a shrinking social role of the state. This prompted a continuous and all- pervasive institutional and legislative reform with limited results which led to a growing distrust in the Bulgarian institutions.


References

Andreas, Peter and Ethan Nadelmann. 2006. Policing the Globe. Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Alpha Research. 2009. Assessment of the Activity of the Public Institutions. Accessed 20 March 2009. http://www.aresearch.org/institutions.html

Bienkowska, Ewa. 1993. “Crime in Eastern Europe.” In Crime in Europe, edited by Frances Heidensohn, and Martin Farrel, 43–54. London: Routledge.

Booth, Kevin. 1991. “Security and Emancipation.” Review of International Studies 17: 313–326. Brenner, Neill, Peck, Jamie, and Nik Theodore. 2010. “After Neoliberalization.” Globalisations 7(3): 327–345.

Buzan, Barry. 1983. People, States and Fear: The National Security Question in International Relations. London: Wheatsheaf Books.

Buzan, Barry,Wæver Ole, and de Wilde, Jaap. 1998. Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Campbell, David. 1992. Writing Security. United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Crawford, Adam, ed. 2002. Crime and Insecurity: The Governance of Safety in Europe. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.

CSD. 2004. Transportation, Smuggling and Organized Crime. Sofia: Centre for the Study of Democracy.

CSD. 2007. Organised Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends. Sofia: Centre for the Study of Democracy.

Dorff, Robert. 1994. “A Commentary on Security Studies for the 1990s as a Model Core Curriculum.” International Studies Notes, 19: 23-31.

Edwards, Adam Michael, and Pete Gill. 2002. “The politics of ‘transnational organized crime’: discourse, reflexivity and the narration of ‘threat’.” British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4 (2): 245-270.

Gachevska, Katerina. 2005. “Exporting Anti-crime Policies: EU PHARE Projects on Fighting Organised Crime.” In European Studies Conference Proceedings, 32-37. Ruse: University of Rousse Press.

Galeotti, Mark. 2002. “The Challenge of ‘Soft Security’: Crime, Corruption and Chaos.” In New Security Challenges in Postcommunist Europe: Securing Europe’s East, edited by Andrew Cottey and Derek Averre. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Heidenson, Frances, and Martin Farrel, eds. 1991. Crime in Europe. London: Routledge.

Hignett, Kelly. 2010. “The Changing face of Organized Crime in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe.” Debatte, 18 (1): 71-88.

Holmes, Leslie. 2009. “Crime, organised crime and corruption in post-communist Europe and the CIS.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 42 (2): 265-287.

Krastev, Ivan. 1997. “Party Structure and Party Perspectives in Bulgaria.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 13 (1): 91–106.

Levi, Michael. 1998. “Perspectives on organised crime.” Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 37 (4): 335–345.

Longo, Francesca. 2003. “The export of the fight against organized crime policy model and the EU’s international actorness.” In Understanding the European Union’s External Relations, edited by Michele Knodt and Sebastian Princen, 158–172. London: Routledge.

Mathews, Jessica. 1989. “Redefining Security.” Foreign Affairs 68 (2): 162–188. Nikolov, Jovo. 1997. “Crime and Corruption after Communism – Organized Crime in Bulgaria.” East European Constitutional Review 6 (4).

Naylor, R. T. 2002. Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Perlez, Jane. 1995. “Sofia Journal: Rogue ‘Wrestlers’ Have an Armlock on Bulgaria.” New York Times, 12 January.

Ruggiero, Vincenzo. 2000. “Transnational crime: Official and Alternative Fears.” International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 28: 187–199.

Ruggiero, Vincenzo. 1996. Organized Crime in Europe: Offers that Can’t Be Refused. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company.

Savona, Ernesto, and Federica Curtol. 2004. “The Contribution of Data Exchange Systems to the Fight against Organised Crime in The SEE Countries.” Final Report. Transcrime. Accessed 01 November 2011. http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/untc/ unpan019080.pdf

UNDP. 2000. “Bulgaria: Annual Early Warning Report for 2000, United Nations Development Programme.” Accessed 2 November 2002. http://www.undp.bg/en/publications/early_ warning_reports/2000/annual_2000.pdf

Wæver, Ole, Barry Buzan, Morten Kelstrup, and Pierre Lemaitre, eds. 1993. Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe. London: Pinter.

Woodiwiss, Michael, and Dick Hobbs. 2009. “Organized Evil and the Atlantic Alliance: Moral Panics and the Rhetoric of Organized Crime Policing in America and Britain,” British Journal of Criminology (49): 106–128.

Woodiwiss, Michael. 2000. “Organised Crime – The Dumbing of Discourse.” The British Criminology Conference: Selected Proceedings (3).

Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter Der Bundesvorsitzende. 2006. Партньорска проверка: Правосъдие и вътрешни работи. България, 22-24 февруари 2006. Обект на проверката: Борбата с организираната престъпност (Partner Evaluation: Justice and Home Affairs. Bulgaria 22-24 February. Subject of the evaluation: Fight with organised crime). Accessed 10 February 2007. http://www.cespolice.org/fra/docs/bulgarienbulgsachverstaendigenbericht.pdf

Василев, Л. 1997. “Костов между популярността сега и успеха утре.” Капитал, No. 35, 30 август 1997 (Kostov between popularity today and success tomorrow. Capital Newspaper 30 August). Accessed 11 September 2008. http://www.capital.bg/show.php?storyid=240465

Върховна касационна прокуратура. 2000. Анализ на регистрираната и наказаната престъпност през 1999 (Analysis of registered and sentenced crime in 1999). Сoфия: Съвет за криминологични изследвания към върховна касационна прокуратура на Р.България.

Костов, И. 1999. Изказване на министър-председателя Иван Костов пред Народното събрание за мерките на правителството за борба с организираната престъпност и корупцията – 11 юни 1999г. (Speech of the Prime Minister Ivan Kostov on the measures

of the government in the fight against crime and corruption – 11 June 1999). Accessed 28 January 2009. http://sun450.government.bg/old/bg/prime_minister/statements/NS-Kostov_ prestapnost_06_11.html

Концепция за националната сигурност на Република България, приета с Решение на 38-о НС от 16.04.1998 г., обн., ДВ, бр. 46 от 22.04.1998г. (National Security Concept of Republic of Bulgaria). Accessed 26 January 2009. http://www.md.government.bg/bg/koncepcii/ national_security_concept.html

Мантарова, A. 2000. Престъпност и социална трансформация. (Crime and social transformation) София: Институт по Социология, БАН.

Милев, М. 2004. “Бойко Борисов и Четиредесетте разбойника” (Boyko Borisov and the Forty Thieves). Капитал, No. 51, 20/12-9/01/2004.

Николов, Н. 2000. МВР в системата на нациоалната сигурноост. Взаимодействие и координация. (The Ministry of Interior in the national security system. Interaction and coordination). Албатрос.

Published
2018/08/29
Section
Articles