Edited by Edward Aspinall and Gerry van Klinken

The popular 1998 reformasi movement that brought down President Suharto’s regime demanded an end to illegal practices by state officials, from human rights abuse to nepotistic investments. Yet today, such practices have proven more resistant to reform than people had hoped. Many have said corruption in Indonesia is “entrenched”. We argue it is precisely this entrenched character that requires attention. What is state illegality entrenched in and how does it become entrenched? This involves The state and illegality in Indonesia studying actual cases. Our observations led us to rethink fundamental ideas about the nature of the state in Indonesia, especially regarding its socially embedded character. We conclude that illegal practices by state officials are not just aberrations to the state, they are the state. Almost invariably, illegality occurs as part of collective, patterned, organized and collaborative acts, linked to the competition for political power and access to state resources. While obviously excluding many without connections, corrupt behaviour also plays integrative and stabilizing functions. Especially at the lower end of the social ladder, it gets a lot of things done and is often considered legitimate. This book may be read as a defence of area studies approaches. Without the insights that grew from applying our area studies skills, we would still be constrained by highly stylised notions of the state, which bear little resemblance to the state’s actual workings. The struggle against corruption is a long-term political process. Instead of trying to depoliticize it, we believe the key to progress is greater popular participation

Leiden: KLTIV Press, 2011. 341p.

By William Assanvo, Baba Dakono, Lori-Anne Théroux-Bénoni and Ibrahim Maïga  

This report analyses the links between violent extremism, illicit activities and local conflicts in the Liptako-Gourma region. Addressing regional instability in the long term requires empirical data that helps explain the local dynamics that fuel insecurity. This is the first of two reports, and is based on interviews conducted in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The second report assesses the measures aimed at bringing stability to the region.

Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2019. 24p.

By William Elliott Hazelgrove

Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair: The End of the Gangster Era in Chicago is a historical look at Chicago during the darkest days of the Great Depression. The story of Chicago fighting the hold that organized crime had on the city to be able to put on The 1933 World's Fair. William Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open. The story of Rufus and Charles Dawes who gave the fair a theme and then found financing in the worst economic times the country had ever experienced. The story of the most corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, who owed his election to Al Capone; and the mayor who followed him, Anton Cermak, who was murdered months before the fair opened by an assassin many said was hired by Al Capone. But most of all it's the story about a city fighting for survival in the darkest of times; and a shining light of hope called A Century of Progress.

Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 280p.

By Saša Đorđević and Ruggero Scaturro

Legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi called football ‘the most important of the unimportant things in life’.1 This is certainly true in the six countries known as the Western Balkan 6 (WB6) – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Teams in the region have a loyal following, national teams are proudly supported, while star footballers who play abroad are feted at home and in the major European football leagues.2 However, the WB6 also have a reputation for football hooliganism, as when fans chant racist and nationalist slogans, and fight with the followers of rival teams. This problem is by no means unique to the WB6; football hooliganism was labelled the ‘English disease’ in the 1980s, long before it became a problem in the Western Balkans. However, football hooliganism in the WB6 is a potentially explosive cocktail because of its links to politics, ethnic and religious extremism, and organized crime. Football hooliganism has received considerable attention from sociologists and anthropologists, who analyze its cultural aspects,3 and the police, who look at how to prevent and control it.4 However, few studies have considered the relationship between football hooliganism and organized crime. Unlike studies that focus on football hooliganism in particular countries like Croatia or Serbia, where there is extensive research into the links between football and violence,5 this report fills a gap by analyzing the issue from a broader, regional perspective. The report begins by mapping the major football supporters’ clubs in each of the Western Balkan countries. It provides a brief overview of fan groups, including their organizational structure, communication modes and use of national, ethnic and religious symbols. It then identifies which of these groups can be considered ‘ultras’ (i.e. a type of football fan association, see definition box below). Further analysis singles out which of these ultras groups demonstrate attributes of football hooliganism, and how this hooliganism is linked to organized crime and politics. Sorting ultras groups in this way helps to differentiate between those that simply support their clubs, albeit in a fanatical way, and others that engage in organized crime and violence. This report is careful to make a distinction between ultras and football hooligans. Ultras are understood to be groups of hard core football fans affiliated to a particular team; football hooligans engage in violence within the football milieu and some of these hooligans are involved in organized crime.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 53p.