Smuggling and Border Enforcement

Abstract

This article analyzes the efficacy of border enforcement against smuggling. We argue that walls, fences, patrols, and other efforts to secure porous borders can reduce smuggling, but only in the absence of collusion between smugglers and state agents at official border crossings. When such corruption occurs, border enforcement merely diverts smuggling flows without reducing their overall volume. We also identify the conditions under which corruption occurs and characterize border enforcement as a sorting mechanism that allows high-skilled smugglers to forge alternative border-crossing routes while deterring low-skilled smugglers or driving them to bribe local border agents. Combining a formal model and an archival case study of opium smuggling in Southeast Asia, we demonstrate that border enforcement has conditional effects on the routes and volumes of smuggling, depending on the nature of interactions between smugglers and border agents. By drawing attention to the technological and organizational aspects of smuggling, this article brings scholarship on criminal governance into the study of international relations, and contributes to debates on the effects of border enforcement and border politics more generally.

Drivers of vulnerability to medicine smuggling and combat strategies: a qualitative study based on online news media analysis in Iran

“…Kim and Tajima’s research supports our findings that penalties alone are not an effective deterrent in combating drug trafficking. Hosseini and colleagues have also verified that effective monitoring, cooperation, and educational programs at different levels can help lower the risk of counterfeit drugs and drug trafficking [ 22 ]. A recent study has highlighted that the illegal trade of drugs poses a major public health concern in Africa.…”

Contrabando y anomia social en la frontera entre Colombia y Venezuela

“…La variable dependiente fue seleccionada considerando que una característica de las fronteras entre países en lac son las marcadas relaciones socioespaciales y económicas entre las cuales se encuentra una cultura de vinculación entre los pueblos y el contrabando. Dichas relaciones se asocian con corrupción, soborno y extorsión que nacen y se propagan por factores sociopolíticos, asimetrías económicas y legales, aspectos institucionales y ético-culturales (Carrión M., 2011;Kim & Tajima, 2022;Mazuera-Arias et al, 2019).…”

The Fortification Dilemma: Border Control and Rebel Violence

“…Borderland civilians depend on cross-border markets (Idler, 2019). Fortifications impede market access, reducing trade and wages (Kim and Tajima, 2022). As US military advisors feared in Iraq, economic disruption resulting from fortification could empower "a [militant] financier who comes through and builds a cell in an impoverished border village" (Tyson, 2006).…”

“…By dislocating communities, fortifications can spur resentment and humiliation (Gade, 2020). In tandem with the disruption of cross-border markets Kim and Tajima, 2022), these impacts may exacerbate criminal and political violence. Mixed evidence warrants closer attention to bridge theoretical divides, unpack mechanisms, and address inferential challenges.…”