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Subtitled “Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare”, Brenner uses his extensive background in and knowledge about national security to explain America’s next great battleground: digital security. Incidents like WikiLeaks posting secret U.S. State Department cables is only the tip of this massive, transparent iceberg that threatens to sink the United States.
Counterfeit computer chips have found their way into our fighter aircraft; the Chinese stole a new radar system that the navy spent billions to develop. American and NATO soldiers used intentionally corrupted thumb drives to download classified intelligence from laptops in Iraq; citizens fall for phishing scams and give up the log in information to their bank. And you and I should stop trying to hide behind anonymity when book blogging and blog reading because nothing is secretive on the web.
The book reads largely like a spy novel with perennial favorite Russia and new favorite China at it again and there were moments when I was afraid Brenner might be exaggerating. Yet, he backs up with statements with citations and expertise. Overall, the book is a great read. Unsettling? Yes. But a fascinating read nonetheless. I’m really looking forward to my class’ discussion on this topic tomorrow.
Book Mentioned:
- Brenner, Joel.America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare. New York: Penguin, 2011. 308 pgs. ISBN: 9781594203138. Source: Purchased.
Subtitled “The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle”. Merchants of Madness provides a convoluted examination of the methamphetamine trade in the “Golden Triangle”, the intersection of the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma (also known as Myanmar). The authors argue the root causes of the drug trade are ethnic conflict and prolonged, stifling military rule in Burma mean drugs will continue to circulate throughout the Golden Triangle and the rest of the world.
Utilizing extensively researched examples, Lintner and Black explain how the trade in methamphetamines and other drugs are carried out under the auspicious of a government trying to hold onto territorial control. The Burmese government allowed particular regions such as the Wa State to become semi-independent buffer states with their own laws and administrations between Burma and its neighbors, subsequently allowing the trade in heroin and methamphetamines to flourish. The construction of these states within states and the intertwining of the state’s governmental apparatuses with drug trafficking mean prosecutions rarely occur.
The extensive use of examples is complicated, however, by an instance on using examples from other countries. By comparing the Wa area of Burma to Boten, Laos and corruption in Burma to Thailand, Lintner and Black are actually saying efforts to stem drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle are problematic across the region rather than in one particular hotspot. Burma may be the source of methamphetamine tablets, but the reader is left with a sense that the region as a whole has failed to prevent the trade of yaba. Singling out Burma seems unjustifiable given the geographical expanse of examples and may be indicative of a basis on the part of the authors, both of whom reside in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The later idea is supported by the opening chapter entitled “The Madness” which explains the horrific social effects of methamphetamine usage for the Thai people, particularly those residing in Chiang Mai, rather than for people of all nationalities in the region.
The final chapter of the book entitled “The Future?” explains how little criticism has befallen on Burma from its neighbors and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who call the drug trade an internal affair over fears of losing access to Burmese natural gas. Those who criticize the Burmese drug trade exist mainly the West and refuse to work with governments not recognized outside the country. Lintner and Black argue that in order to stem the flow of drugs criticizing nation-states must see entities like the United Wa State Army (UWSA) outside of the binaries of good and evil. Certainly this is an argument that can applied to efforts to combat at litany of illegal activities, but the final suggestion of creating accord between ethnic groups in Burma falls flat because the authors fail to explain how this could be accomplished. Democracy appears to be the primary suggestion without consideration that democracy could open the country up to further violence and tensions under an assembling government, conditions under which drug trafficking could continue to flourish.
Overall, Lintner and Black’s Merchants of Madness makes some good points on extraterritoriality for drug traffickers and complications of sovereignty in dealing with the trade of methamphetamines, but the book fails to make a convincing case that Burma is the sole country to blame for the “explosion” in methamphetamine trade and usage.
Book Mentioned:
- Lintner, Bertil and Michael Black. Merchants of Madness: The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2009.
Subtitled “Greed, Corruption, and War in the Global Diamond Trade”, Smilie’s book was assigned for my trafficking class’ unit on conflict minerals. The book details a dangerous pipeline leading from war-torn Africa to the glittering showrooms of Paris, London and New York. It describes the campaign that forced an industry and more than 50 governments to create a global control mechanism, and it provides a sobering prognosis on the impact and future of the Kimberley Certification Process.
The other book I read on this topic focused largely on the efforts of De Beers to monopolize the diamond trade. This book, however, delves into a series of case studies — Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — to show exactly how diamonds are funneled out to adorn engagement rings and funneled in to fund wars and human right violations. It’s the first book I’ve read that examines the solutions offered by De Beers, the United Nations, and other governments and then follows up its critiques with its own suggestions. How very helpful!
I did have a few times were I struggled to follow the narrative but, overall, this is an important read on blood diamonds/conflict diamonds for both the beginner and the expert. Now, if only I could find a book on other conflict minerals!
Book Mentioned:
- Smilie, Ian. Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption, and War in the Global Diamond Trade. New York: Anthem Press, 2010. Print. 252 pgs. ISBN: 9780857289636. Source: Purchased.
Halfway through the semester and I’m just now getting around to sharing my textbooks for the semester. Told you it’s been a busy semester. Two of my classes for the semester have textbooks; two of my classes for the semester do not. I started out the semester in an additional class that required three more textbooks, but I ended up dropping the class back in February.
- Global Human Smuggling (David Kyle and Rey Koslowski) – I read this book over the course of last week and loved it. I just didn’t have enough to say about the book for a full post, but you can read my thoughts on it over at GoodReads. So far I’m the only person on the site who has read the book.
- Somalia: The New Barbary? (Martin N. Murphy) – I was supposed to read this book for class two weeks ago; I could never get into it and ended up shelving it. Most of my classmates did the same.
- Global Outlaws (Carolyn Nordstrom) – Another book that I loved. I posted my thoughts on the book last week.
- Blood on the Stone (Ian Smillie) – This will be the second book I’ve read on blood diamonds. My classmates and I were assigned an article by Smillie earlier in the semester that I had a hard time getting through so I’m a little worried about how reading this book will go.
- Merchants of Madness (Bertil Lintner and Michael Black) – You can’t take a class on trafficking without some discussion of drugs. Lintner and Black’s book examines the “methamphetamine explosions in the Golden Triangle”.
- Illicit Flows and Criminal Things (Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham) – This book is a collection of articles about the worldwide circulation of people, things, and ideas. I read most of the
- America the Vulnerable (Joel Brenner) – I was not expecting to discuss computer security in my course this semester, but I am interested to read about the issue after a visit to the International Spy Museum last spring where the museum concludes with the threat hijackers pose to America’s infrastructure.
- Introductory Econometrics (Jeffrey M. Wooldridge) – I was quite concerned about taking econometrics this semester and, unfortunately, this book has done nothing to assuage my concern. I’ve been muddling through the chapters and struggling to understand the necessary concepts both in class and from the textbook.
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
Nordstrom’s book was the second I read for my class on illicit commodities/trafficking, but it has the distinction of being the one that excited me about the class. Subtitled “Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World”, this book recounts Nordstrom’s travels through Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States following the illegal trade in goods from cigarettes to food to blood diamonds to arms to pharmaceuticals to people. In roughly that order and through “stories”, Nordstrom shows how the mundane of a war orphan selling Marlboros in Angola is connected to the transnational networks that smuggle people (including herself) and drugs through ports across the world.
Throughout the book, Nordstrom shows how there are shades of gray when it comes to illegal trade. Acts of illegality are not homogeneously evil and paint them as such with a wide brush ignores the different approaches needed to address these crimes. The smuggling of cigarettes cost UK taxpayers 2.5. billion pounds every year, but how can you prosecute a war orphan selling cigarettes in an attempt to pull himself out of poverty? This side of illegal trade, which appears rather ordinary and common, will not attract as much attention as corrupt government officials, for example, but it is the side of illegality that appears to dominate illicit trade.
Utilizing ethnographic concepts and practices, Nordstrom’s book equates to an anthropological study of illegality and illicitness often times ignored or undervalued in the literature. Her use of isolated communities and cases uncovers the larger players and forces at work in our globalized economy, and her bottom-up approach matches how the small-scale builds up the large-scale, transnational industries operating under the radar of the common man.
Nordstrom’s readable text and presentation moves this problem from the jurisdiction of the state and academia and into the minds of the public. I cannot, and will not, claim much knowledge about this issues; my two majors tie me to visible/legal and the borders of the nation. But I learned so much from this book that I’m confident you will to.
Book Mentioned:
- Nordstrom, Carolyn. Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. Print. 235 pgs. ISBN: 9780520250956. Source: Purchased.
