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Author: Misha Glenny
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $16.42
You Save: $11.53 (41%)
New (31) Used (6) from $16.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 10512
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400044111
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.106
EAN: 9781400044115
ASIN: 1400044111
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
engaging book June 9, 2008
This is a very engaging book, so well written that it seems like fiction - but sadly its not. Are you perplexed by the glitzy storefronts and countless luxury cars on the city streets of Kiev and Moscow? Are you curious about how guns get into the hands of warlords in Africa or where the demand for slave labor could possible come from? Do you wonder how the fall of the Soviet Union really played out? This is a riveting account of our alter world - the one thriving and evolving in the shadows of mainstream economies and governments - and how all of the nefarious activites around the globe tie together and relate to each other. It does get a bit repetitive towards the end of the book, but you still feel the urge to read on and finish. I strongly recommend it.
 Global Disorder June 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Glenny dutifully documents, in exquisite detail, the rise of transnational criminal organizations in every global region.
Simple formula: morally neutral global economic platform + economic/social distress = the rapid proliferation and unabated growth of transnational criminal organizations.
Without a fundamental revision of global governance (not very likely), we will soon become very familiar with local variants of the stories he documents.
John Robb, author of: Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization
 mcmafia May 31, 2008
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
The book was ok.Its actually alot of short story type chapters.Different criminals around the world.
The globalization of organized crime May 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Glenny's McMafia records a host of examples of organized crime that burst loose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The fall of authoritarian states in Eastern Europe allowed organized crime to step in and take over the economy. Former officials transferred state assets into private wealth. People who had lived on the margins of society took the chance to engage in selling illict goods abroad to amass a fortune.
Glenny articulates how the fall of the communist state and the concomitant opening up of hitherto isolated countries created new organizations that took control of domestic economies but also pervaded western economies that were attractive markets for illicit products like drugs, taxfree cigarettes, prostitution and the like. Lack of rule of law in the East combined with Western regulation made for a toxic mix of exploitation and extertion. The UN trade sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro also created opportunities for smugglers. Globalization further unleashed an exodus of people from China and elsewhere towards western countries to try their luck. The rise of prices of oil and other natural resources contributes to profits from organized crime. Glenny sketches a fascinating picture of the grim realities of the underworld with a keen view of the interdependence of law and lawlessness, state and criminal organizations.
 Good overview of global crime but can stand less commentary May 20, 2008
14 out of 26 found this review helpful
I must give Mr. Glenny credit for writing a very comprehensive and encompassing overview of the global nature of organized crime. He makes the point very clear that a number of crime organizations exist with the knowledge of, or as an extension to, many governments. Furthermore he does a good job of showing how some countries, such as India, are making attempts to combat this global plague.
This book does have two major shortcomings. The first is that the author does not do a good job of showing crime as more than a local feature with spot international implications. He uses human trafficking and drugs as one example of the international reach but fails to connect the dots on how country A's criminal syndicate works with country B's. There is also hardly a mention of the U.S. as anything more than an annoying pest. He goes to great lengths to avoid mentioning U.S. help in cutting Columbia's murder rate in half, eliminating opium from Vietnam and Cambodia. Reducing crime in the Philippines not to mention at home.
So despite what the book pretends, the criminals are not always winning. If you don't buy the U.S. look at the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Finland and Sweden as some examples of countries where organized crime has been dealt strong set backs. He also fails to mention Canada's defeat of its strongest criminal gang, the Hells Angels. All in all an interesting, but highly unbalanced work.
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