Pick up a newspaper anywhere, any day, and you will find reports of illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods. Illicit trades are booming and so are the traffickers' revenues—and their political influence. Black-market networks are stealthily transforming global politics and economics.

ILLICIT shows how we got to this dangerous point—and stresses the interconnections between these illegal enterprises, and how they endlessly recombine to breed new lines of business, distort the economy of entire countries and industries, enable terrorists and even take over governments. From pirated movies to weapons of mass destruction, from human organs to endangered species, drugs, or stolen art, ILLICIT reveals the inner workings of these amazingly efficient international organizations and shows why it is so hard—and so necessary—to contain them.

ILLICIT offers a fresh, ingenious and compelling vision of this untold story of globalization. It provides a powerful new lens with which to assess how today's world really works and where it may be headed. Illicit will surely ignite urgent debate at the highest levels—and change the way you think about the world.

Moisés Naím on writing ILLICIT:
My interest in illicit trade comes out of more than a decade of work on the suprises of globalization. As editor of Foreign Policy magazine, it has been my job to track and understand the unanticipated consequences of the new connections between countries and world politics and economics.

My work at Foreign Policy also gave me the chance to discuss with some of the world's more insightful analysts and practitioners how they were interpreting these changes. As I encountered these suprises, learned the stories, and often had the chance to meet their protagonists, this professional interest evolved into a personal fascination.

Click on the PDF link below to read Chapter 1.