Illicit flows and criminal things : states, borders, and the other side of globalization / edited by Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the making of illicitness / Itty Abraham and Willem van Schendel -- Spaces of engagement : how borderlands, illicit flows, and territorial states interlock / Willem van Schendel -- The rumor of trafficking : border controls, illegal migration, and the sovereignty of the nation-state / Diana Wong -- Talking like a state : drugs, borders, and the language of control / Paul Gootenberg -- "Here, even legislators chew them" : coca leaves and identity politics in northern Argentina / Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui -- Seeing the state like a migrant : why so many non-criminals break immigration laws / David Kyle and Christina A. Siracusa -- Criminality and the global diamond trade : a methodological case study / Ian Smillie -- Small arms, cattle raiding, and borderlands : the Ilemi triangle / Kenneth I. Simala and Maurice Amutabi.

This book offers a new perspective on illegal transnational linkages, international relations, and the transnational. The contributors argue for a nuanced approach that recognizes the difference between "organized" crime and the thousands of illicit acts that take place across national borders every day. They distinguish between the illegal (prohibited by law) and the illicit (socially perceived as unacceptable), which are historically changeable and contested. Detailed case studies of arms smuggling, illegal transnational migration, the global diamond trade, borderland practices.