Global economics and politics
The wider economy that illicit trade lives inside: offshore finance, informal markets and states that work differently from the textbook.
The wider economy that illicit trade lives inside: offshore finance, informal markets and states that work differently from the textbook.
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- Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World
Shaxson, Nicholas. (2011) 2012. Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World. Vintage. ISBN 9780099541721.
Why read it: A readable account of the offshore system: what tax havens are, how they grew and who benefits. It explains the plumbing that most illicit trade investigations eventually run into. Who it is for: readers new to offshore finance. - Somalia: Economy without State
Little, Peter D. 2003. Somalia: Economy without State. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253216489. https://doi.org/10.2979/3009.0. Out of print or hard to find.
Why read it: How Somalia’s economy kept working, and in places grew, without a central government: livestock exports, remittances and trade networks that run on trust and clan. It challenges the assumption that markets need a state, which matters for anyone working on ungoverned spaces. Who it is for: anyone working on the Horn of Africa, or on trade where there is no state. - Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World
Nordstrom, Carolyn. 2007. Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520250963. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940635.
Why read it: An anthropologist follows smuggled goods and money across borders, from African ports to European markets, and shows how illegal trade shapes economics and politics along the way. It is fieldwork rather than statistics, and it reads like it. Who it is for: analysts who want fieldwork rather than statistics.
Last checked 2026-10-13.