Experts to Gather at Pitt to Discuss Convergence Between Criminal and Terrorist Networks

PITTSBURGH—What is the relationship between weak states and terrorist activity? What determines whether violent armed groups cooperate or conflict with one another? And if violent groups are converging, how do the United States and other countries respond?

These timely issues, among others, will be discussed by scholars and international security experts from around the globe at a two-day conference—“Continuing Threat Convergence, Exploiting Threat Divergence: U.S. Strategy in Dealing with Emerging Threats”—on Sept. 10 and 11 in Ballroom B of the University Club, 123 University Pl., Oakland.

Sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, the discussions and presentations will explore such topics as the relationship between poor governance and violent armed groups; terrorist use of organized crime type activities for funding; and the emergence of hybrid groups that pursue both political agendas and profit. Attendees will also discuss drug-trafficking violence in Mexico and arguments that this is a form of insurgency against the state. And they will examine the possibility of drug-trafficking organizations helping terrorists to smuggle weapons of mass destruction or nuclear materials.

Keynote speakers include: 

Sept. 10
9:30 a.m.
"Threat Convergence: Major Trend or Convenient Fiction?"
Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program, Council on Foreign Relations

Sept. 10
12:45 p.m.
"The Importance of Trust"
Nicholas J. Wheeler; professor of international relations and director of the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation, and Security; University of Birmingham

Sept. 11
9 a.m.
"Conflict and Organized Crime"
John de Boer, senior policy advisor, United Nations University Centre for Policy Research

Each keynote address will be followed by a panel discussion, whose members will include:

Douglas Farah, president of IBI Consultants and former West Africa bureau chief for The Washington Post;

Colin Clarke, associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an expert on the financing of terrorism; and

Jorge Chabat, professor at the Center for Research and Teaching Economics in Mexico City.

Visit Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at www.gspia.pitt.edu to see additional information or register for the conference.

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9/8/15/klf/jm