This sobering and sometimes shocking survey of the new world disorder takes as its starting point the fall of the USSR and the subsequent orgiastic looting of Russia's money and resources, the rise of the mind-bogglingly wealthy oligarchs and the Russian mafia. Guns, drugs cars and human beings are all grist to the mill of these hyper-capitalists who cross international borders, subvent laws, rule by violence and yet, oddly enough, provide a modicum of order and stability in destabilised regions even as they spread misery and make billions. And that's just the starting point. South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Japan and China are all linked in an ever-expanding shadow economy that mirrors and outpaces the legitimate trade network. Crime has gone global. Crime prevention has not.
There are many horrible things between the covers of this book, but it's the sad and terrible plight of the victims of sex-trafficking that make you want to weep. Deceived, used, abused, every night a long string of rapes under threat of violence, escape usually means deportation and the risk of recapture. It makes you want to hit something, but, of course, hitting things is their game.
The globalisation of crime is a huge theme. Each area examined in this books deserves a book of its own. Nevertheless, Glenny's concise, impassioned account of the web of illegality wrapped around our world gives a proper sense of what's going on and where it might be going.