Suchergebnisse

In the Balkans transnationalism is currently associated with foreign interventions and organized crime. In between these extremes, rests a vast area of infomal or 'grey' economy. This burgeoning transnational activity, which eludes official statistics, invites comparisons with the Balkan's last truly transnational period: the merchant-based economy of the Ottoman empire. Against such a historical backdrop contemporary informal and illicit trade in the Balkans proves to be an integral part of the world economy, a local response to the rise of global merchant networks, and a zone of sovereign exception which has affirmed and enabled the continuing existence of the international state system through a period of significant economic and political turbulence. (Ethnopolitics)

Builds upon Giorgio Agamben's (1998) ideas about the need for sovereignties to have the ability to suspend law & create juridical zones of exception to explore Balkan cigarette smuggling in a historical & global context. The multibillion dollar business not only robs states of potential tax revenues, but cigarette smuggling has become an integral part of the symbiotic relationship between statehood & illicit trade in the world economy. It is maintained that the "game" of smuggling depends on the existence of political or juridical constituted transit zones where state laws are temporarily suspended. The history of contraband trade in the Balkans is traced. Unlike the West, cigarette consumption has increased in developing countries, which have created islands of sovereignty & tax exemption that allow illicit commerce to prosper. Similarities between Balkan operations & cigarette-smuggling schemes around the world are pointed out. It is concluded that the Balkans serve as a large, semiregulated territory "where products that would otherwise have difficulty entering European or Western markets get recycled." The policy implications are discussed. 2 Maps. J. Lindroth