Start: 30 Nov 10:30AM End: 30 Nov 3:00PM Location: Dalhousie 2F15
Dr Alexander Kupatadze (University of St Andrews): ‘Organised Crime and the State in post-Soviet Eurasia’ Based on examples from post-Soviet Eurasian countries, this talk will show that the state-organised crime relationship supplements the formal structures and allows the exercise of government authority. Not only are political-criminal links operationalised for the rational purposes of politicians and/or criminals and help aggregate the capacity of the individual politicians to govern, but they also benefit the consolidation of political control over the short- and medium-term. However, the same relationship also functions to undermine the legitimacy, authority and transparency of formal institutions and hence does little to benefit the long-term functioning of the state. All welcome!