Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

"The Dark Side of Globalization:  Organized Crime and its Reach"

 

The World Policy Institute and the Political Salon invite you to join us Wednesday, April 8, for a discussion with award-winning journalist, historian and political commentator Misha Glenny on The Dark Side of Globalization: Organized Crime and its Reach. 

 

A former BBC Central Europe Correspondent, Misha is best known for his coverage of the collapse of communism and the wars in Yugoslavia for which he won the coveted Sony Gold Award for Broadcasting Excellence, as well as for his path-breaking work on the rise of the global mafia.  The author of four bestselling books, Misha’s latest McMafia: A Journey through the Global Criminal Underworld, was published last year in New York, London and Toronto and has become an international bestseller. For the research, Misha interviewed key players in global crime, including gangsters involved at most levels of mafia activity from Colombia to Tokyo and from Johannesburg to Moscow. His analysis places the rise of the shadow economy within a much broader political and economic context - demonstrating its relationship to major security services, the banking and financial industries and the integral part that organized crime plays in most ordinary consumers' lives.

 

When:

Wednesday, April 8

6:30-8 pm

 

Where:

Demos

220 Fifth Avenue (between 26th and 27th streets)

5th Floor conference room

 

RSVP:

This event is free of charge (thanks to the Heinrich Böll Foundation). To ensure that everyone present has a chance to actively engage in the discussion, we are intentionally limiting the number of participants, so you must RSVP to reserve a place.  RSVP to Kate Maloff at maloff@worldpolicy.org or (212) 481-5005 x464.

 

Book Sales:

Mc Mafia: A Journey through the Global Criminal Underworld will be available for purchase at the Salon at the discounted price of $15.  You can pre-order your copy below; if you’re unable to attend and would like to purchase the book, $4.50 will be added for shipping and handling, and you can indicate below how you’d like it inscribed. 

 

About the Speaker

Misha Glenny is the Founding Director of SEE Change, an NGO which completed a two-year project developing cross-border cooperation between multi-ethnic municipalities in Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia. It was during this project that he started researching the rise of the shadow economy since the fall of communism and the advent of globalization, and he continues to consult regularly with major diplomatic actors and high-level law enforcement agencies working on the Balkans and transnational organized crime, including the Foreign Office, the State Department and the FBI. In addition to McMafia, he is the author of three other bestselling books including The Rebirth of History: Eastern Europe in the Age of Democracy; The Fall of Yugoslavia; and The Balkans: 1804-1999.  He has written for all major British and European newspapers and is a regular contributor to the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker.  Misha is a distinguished Fulbright scholar and a former fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, and had a tenure as a visiting research professor at the London School of Economics. He has an honorary doctorate from the American University in Bulgaria.

 

The World Policy Institute, a non-partisan source of progressive global policy analysis and thought leadership for more than four decades, focuses on complex challenges that demand cooperative policy solutions to achieve in an increasingly interdependent world: an inclusive and sustainable global market economy, engaged global civic participation and effective governance, and collaborative approaches to national and global security.

 

The Political Salon – organized by Steve Sokol since 2003 to promote dialogue among the next generation of leaders in business, policy, and the media – regularly convenes a diverse group of young professionals to discuss a range of foreign policy issues and global affairs. Attendees are diverse in terms of nationality, profession, and political persuasion.