International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 126

International Journal on Criminology
Unconventional media can also form part of i2 for hybrid threats. This
includes graffiti (i.e., narcomensajes and narcopintas) and tattoos. These new media are
essentially messaging about who the actors are and what they intend to do (or have
done). Tattoos show affiliations, allegiance, fealty, position/role in hierarchy, and past
actions. Deception is also a component of i2, as deception (including “burner phones,”
antiforensic software, GPS jammers, etc.) is frequently employed by criminal and
terrorist actors to mask their activities.
The goal of i2 can be summarized as AC 2 E: Attribution (who is it/who did it);
Connections (nodes, position); Context (what does it mean in relationship to everything
else?); Exploitation (what can we do with it?).
Conclusion
Contemporary security threats involve the convergence of criminal and terrorist
actors. Gangs, cartels, mafias, insurgents, and corrupt government officials
collude and interact within an illicit space of flows. 36 These convergent threats
pose security challenges at a variety of levels from gang-infested neighborhoods (failed
communities or no-go zones) spanning a few blocks through entire contested zones
(such as favelas in Brazil parts of Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Guerrero, and Michoacán and
San Pedro Sula in Honduras). These groups provide unique challenges (violence and
insecurity) individually and complex challenges when they come together in alliances
or in transactional operations. Corruption and violence form part of this landscape and
need to be mapped.
Developing an intelligence capacity to understand these hybrid networks
requires interaction among police, intelligence (and security services), and the military
and civil government. It also requires interaction with a range of nongovernmental actors
that provide medical, social, and humanitarian services. Intelligence approaches like
distributed meta-analysis “co-production of intelligence” and the transaction analysis
cycle along with expanded use of i2 are potential tools for improving intelligence to
address the convergence of criminal and terrorist threats.
Notes
1
Gary I. Wilson and John P. Sullivan, “On Gangs, Crime, and Terrorism,” Defense and the National
Interest, February 28, 2007, http://www.academia.edu/1606348/On_Gangs_Crime_and_Terrorism.
2
Nils Gilman, Jesse Goldhhammer, and Steven Weber, eds., Deviant Globalization: Black Market Economy
in the 21st Century (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011).
3
Michael Miklaucic, and Jacqueline Brewer, eds., Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in
the Age of Globalization (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2013).
4
Martin van Creveld, The Transformation of War (New York: The Free Press, 1991).
5
William S. Lind, Keith Nightingale, John F. Schmitt, Joseph W. Sutton and Gary I. Wilson, “The Changing
Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation,” Marine Corps Gazette 73 (10) (October 1989): 22-26.
6
Joseph S. Nye, “The Future of Force,” Project Syndicate, February 5, 2015, http://www.project-syndicate.org/
commentary/modern-warfare-defense-planning-by-joseph-s—nye-2015-02#Hj6VzOU92S60czVJ.99.
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