19/04/2013 - Tackling Transnational Organized Crime in the Context of Multilateralism: The EU Added Value

Dr. Irrera argued that organized crime (such as drug, organs and human trafficking, among others) should be understood as a global, rather than only a national, problem and hence addressed as a global security threat, such as terrorism and wars. Dr. Irrera emphasized that organized crime is not only a problem in troubled countries but also in democracies, such as Italy. She called for a more multilateral approach in tackling organized crime, which should be based on more efficient cooperation among various actors, namely international organizations (e.g. the UN), regional organizations (e.g. the EU) and individual states (e.g. the US, UK or Italy). Dr. Irrera explained how the Lisbon Treaty changed EU’s response to organized crime. She highlighted that while the EU strategy derives from individual Member States’ experiences with fight against organized crime, the EU now prefers collective cooperation as part of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

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Dr. Daniela Irrera is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Catania, Italy, where she teaches International Politics and Global Civil Society. She is also an Adjunct Faculty Member in Politics at the University of Arcadia in Syracuse, Italy. Dr. Irrera obtained her PhD in International Relations at the University of Catania. She has been a Research Assistant at the Stony Brook University, New York, USA (2002), a Visiting Fellow at the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland (2007), a Fulbright Alumni of the Study of the United States Institute on National Security of the US Department of State (University of Delaware (2009), a Visiting Fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2009) and a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford (2012). She is a member of the executive committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime. She has published extensively in the areas of International Relations and EU politics, focusing on global terrorism, TOC, civil society and humanitarian affairs.