2018 Edition
The Summer School on Illicit Trade
Date & Place
Dates & location
9 – 14 July 2018, Groningen, the Netherlands
Level
Finalizing BA/MA/PhD/Postdoc/Practitioners
Fee
€ 500 (excluding accommodation)
€ 745 (including accommodation)
Coordinators
Dr. Francesco Giumelli, Faculty of Arts
Dr. Tim Wittig, Faculty of Arts
Contact
illicittrade@rug.nl
Lecturers
Last summer lecturers included senior experts and officials from the following institutions:
· Interpol
· NATO
· Investigative NGOs
· Financial Institutions
· US Drug Enforcement Agency
· Risk Analysis Consultancies
· National Defense University
Target Group
This summer school is intended for Masters, PhD, third year BA students and above, and practitioners. The participants need to have an interest and/or experience in understanding and combating illicit trade, trafficking, finance, and related issues. It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English .
Course Schedule
Day 1: Overview
Day 2: Trade and Trafficking
Day 3: Money and Money Trafficking
Day 4: Practical Field Trip
Day 5: Responses
Day 6: Exam
How to apply
Please submit:
· CV (max 2 pages)
· Motivation letter (max 1 page)
Registration will close once we have reached our maximum number of qualified applicants. Final application date: 1 April 2019.
Course Coordinators
The Coordinators: Francesco Giumelli (right) and Tim Wittig (left)
Dr. Francesco Giumelli
Francesco Giumelli holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florence and is assistant professor in the Department of International Relations and International Organization at the University of Groningen. He has been Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute and Fellow at the Kroc Institute of Notre Dame University. He wrote the ‘Success of Sanctions: Lessons Learned from the experience of the EU’ with Routledge/Ashgate, and ‘Coercing and Constraining and Signalling: Explaining UN and EU Sanctions after the Cold War’ with ECPR Press. He also authored reports for the European Union Institute for Security Studies and the European Policy Centre among others and gave talks at various international think tanks, such as Chatham House, the German Council on Foreign Relations and the Italian Institute for International Affairs.
Dr. Tim Wittig
Tim Wittig holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, and is a research fellow at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on identifying and researching the social determinants of illicit trafficking, threat finance, and transnational organized crime, and how they intersect with other issues of international and environmental security. He is the author of numerous publications on these topics, including the book Understanding Terrorist Finance (Palgrave: 2011). In parallel to his academic work, Dr. Wittig has extensive experience as a practitioner, having worked for several years in the NGO sector on counter wildlife trafficking initiatives, in the defense/national security sector on counter threat finance and related issues, and as a consultant to public, private, and charitable sector clients. Prior to Groningen, Dr. Wittig has held a variety of university research and faculty positions, including at Johns Hopkins University, U.S. National Defense University, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of St Andrews.
Guest Speakers
Dr. Pim Geelhoed
Dr. Pim Geelhoed is an assistant professor in criminal law and criminal procedure. He specializes specifically in EU criminal law. Alongside his position at Groningen University he is also a deputy judge in the Noord-Nederland District Court. During the summer school Dr. Geelhoed will guide us through the legal trends when it comes to illicit trade and organized crime.
Eamon Grennan
Eamon Grennan is an analyst for transnational issues of concern to NATO. Prior to this, he served as an Officer in Royal Navy in a variety of intelligence and security related positions, and also worked in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Currently based at NATO’s Operational Headquarters in Belgium, his main areas of interest are terrorism and organised crime in conflict zones.
Vincent Openye
Vincent Openye is the founder and director of the Natural Resource Conservation Network (NRCN) in Uganda. From its inception in 2014, the NRCN has quickly gained a reputation for its effective model for investigating and fighting wildlife crime in Uganda. NRCN is a network of professionals who are using their training to ensure timely investigation, prosecution and reporting of wildlife crime in Uganda in order to reduce on incidences of wildlife poaching and promote conservation of wildlife. NRCN was founded by Mr. Opyene, who is a Wildlife Crime Investigator and specialized wildlife crime Public Prosecutor. Mr. Opeyene has previously served as the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Legal Counsel, and is an advocate of High Court of Uganda and other courts subordinate to it.
Frank Slijper
Frank Slijper is an economist who has investigated the international arms trade and arms industry, as well arms export control related issues for more than 25 years, since 2014 with peace organization PAX. Frank has investigated and published on illicit trade, such as the AQ Khan case (nuclear weapons); and Dutch companies supplying to Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons programme in the 1980s. More recently he investigated illicit military trade with Sudan and cases of embargo busting by the UAE. Besides media attention, such research is meant to strengthen advocacy work and sometimes to contribute to legal cases.
Marco Zinzani
Marco Zinzani is an Italian lawyer. He was admitted to the Italian Bar in 2010 and he is a member of the Bar of Milan. He focuses on international trade law, export controls and international economic sanctions. In 2011, he joined Studio Legale Padovan, where he co- leads the Export Control Team. Marco holds a law degree cum laude (2005) from ‘Tor Vergata’ University in Rome. In 2007, as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, he completed cum laude the Advanced Professional Master (MIC Programme-LL.M.) in Comparative, European and International Law at Maastricht University (The Netherlands). In 2012, he received a Ph.D. in European Union Law from Maastricht University.
Jason Cherish
Jason Cherish is an international consultant and entrepreneur with 15 years experience working in complex public, private, academic, and non-profit sector environments. He has lead discreet due diligence and competitive intelligence teams covering transitional markets around the world. Jason is a graduate of the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University where he studied economics and theology, and earned his Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University where he concentrated in international security. Jason also conducted research for the Moynihan Institute’s Global Black Spot monitoring project helping develop unconventional open source research techniques to illuminate illicit trade networks in the Greater Maghreb. He is a primary research specialist and has consulted on risk management and international trade for STRATFOR, Deloitte, and many other well known firms. Jason lives in Nairobi, Kenya where he runs an international consultancy that provides primary research, strategic advisory, security and logistics support to private companies and investors operating in opaque markets throughout Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
Wim Brown
Wim Brown is currently the co-founder and Managing Director of Focused Conservation Solutions. Focused Conservation Solutions (FCS) is a non-profit organisation working towards two specific goals, 1) reducing the illegal wildlife trade by supporting and building capacity for targeted law enforcement action against wildlife trafficking, and 2) supporting organisations to design and implement more effective conservation actions in challenging environments. Mr. Brown began his career in law enforcement in 1992 with the Cape Coral Police Department in Cape Coral, Florida where he worked as a patrol officer and later a Narcotics Detective. In September 1997, Mr. Brown graduated from the Drug Enforcement Administration Basic Agent Academy as Outstanding Student. Mr. Brown worked as a Special Agent in the Miami Field Division Tampa and Jacksonville District Offices where he was involved in both domestic and international high level narcotics investigations. In 2005 Mr. Brown transferred to the Special Operations Division where he worked in the Bilateral Investigative Unit. The Bilateral Investigative Unit is designed to target high level International Drug Trafficker Organizations operating outside the United States. Notable investigations Mr. Brown worked on were the Victor Bout, Monzer Al Kassar investigation and numerous other high-level investigations. In 2009 Mr. Brown was promoted to a Staff Coordinator within the Special Operations Division Counter Narco-Terrorism Operation Center where he coordinated narco-terrorism investigations conducted by DEA specifically in the Africa region. In March 2011, Mr. Brown was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent at the Special Operations Division where he supervised the Bilateral Investigative Narco-Terrorism group that comprised of 15 special agents which conduct investigations that target high level International Drug Trafficker Organizations operating outside the United States with links to terrorism. In 2013, Mr. Brown transferred to the Nairobi Kenya Country Office where he was responsible for 8 African countries. While in Kenya, Mr. Brown helped develop the DEA Formal Vetted Unit. This Kenyan DEA supported unit was responsible for numerous high-level investigations that included the Akasha Crime Family and the Al Noor. Mr. Brown is former Marine and holds a Master Degree in Public Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Principia College. Mr. Brown spent that last 12 years working throughout Africa while with the Special Operations Division and now with Focused Conservation. Mr. Brown is passionate about Wildlife and is now using his skills to address Illicit Wildlife trafficking. Mr. Brown has appeared in two National Geographic Episodes and two CNN Declassified Shows.
Prof. Peter Andreas
Peter Andreas is the John Hay Professor of International Studies. He joined the The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in the fall of 2001, and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science. Previously, Andreas was an academy scholar at Harvard University, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and an SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellow on International Peace and Security. He holds an MA and PhD in government from Cornell University and a BA in political science from Swarthmore College. Andreas is the author, co-author, or co-editor of ten books. These include Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America (Oxford University Press, 2013, selected by Amazon and by Foreign Affairs as one of the best books of the year), Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo (Cornell University Press, 2008); Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2006); Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (Cornell University Press, 2000, second edition 2009); and Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2010). His most recent book is a political memoir, Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution (Simon & Schuster, 2017). His current book project, Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs (under contract with Oxford University Press), explores the relationship between warfare and mind altering substances, from ancient times to the present. Andreas has also written for a wide range of scholarly and policy publications, including International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, Harper’s, Slate, and The Nation. Other writings include congressional testimonies and op-eds in major newspapers, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and The Guardian.
Joseph Hanvey
Mr. Hanvey has had a long and distinguished career related to compliance and financial crime risk management, with a concentration on Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML), and Sanctions enforcement matters in banking and capital markets. Throughout his career, he has helped financial institutions respond to formal and informal enforcement matters having enhanced and redesigned compliance programs for regulatory submission and approval. Further, Mr. Hanvey has worked internationally assessing and reporting on the effectiveness of BSA/AML and Sanctions controls in the U.K., Russia, Germany and Canada. He has previously served as a designated BSA/AML Compliance Officer with U.S. Financial Institutions and examiner with FINRA (legacy NASD).