197 Palmerino Cuneo Terrorism and organised crime: The system of “permanent… between terrorism and organised crime. The economic and financial globalisation has determined a process which Loretta Napoleoni as a whole defines as the “privatisation of terrorism”56, a hybrid between the economy of terror, the world of crime and law-lessness. This hybrid character is a factor of prime importance in terms of the search for a response to this complex threat. The symbiotic nexus between terrorism and transnational crime “Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you.” (Qur’an, 2:216) Whereas initially and for years the prevailing impression was that the jihadist cells avoided getting involved in criminal activities, only committing minor crimes for the purpose of self-financing, reality has progressively transformed this notion. Terrorism and transnational crime are the winners of globalisation57, with all the advantages brought by growing interdependence. Globalisation allows them to use their arms and fighters in an asymmetric balance of forces and enables a digital revolution of terror-ism that offers them a fundamental strategic and mediatic dimension to exert a direct influence on the multipolar balances. It seems perfectly plausible that the transnational nature of organised crime has enabled terrorism to attain a global reach and that the collapse of governability of the jihadist movement has incentivised the “pax mafiosa” between organised crime and terrorists – which Osama Bin Laden was vehemently opposed to. This phenomenon had already appeared in the Balkans and Caucasus, but in the Sahel, according to Valeria Rosato58, rather than it being a case of pure islamist ideolo-gy spreading and taking root, it is characterised by complex dynamics of instrumental 56 NAPOLEONI, Loretta.Terrorismo S.p.A. Milano: Saggiatore, 2008, p.58. An analogy can be drawn, for example, to the control of private transport in Northern Ireland by the IRA. 57 The scope of globalisation can be seen from the terrorist attacks devastating districts of Kabul and communities in eastern Afghanistan, in the south of the Philippines (where the state army is fighting, using heavy means, against the Salafist-jihadist groups who are claiming both their loyalty to ISIS and a piece of territory on the archipelago), Iraq, Syria (where numbers of fighters are arriving from Trinidad and Tobago, see: https://es.panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2017/03/08/trinidad-y-tobago-el-mayor-exportador-de-yihadistas/ - consulted on: 4 May 2018), the Horn of Africa and of course on the battleground of multipolarity in the Sahel-Sahara swath, from Mauritania to the Horn of Africa, where many terrorist groups operating in the name of both ISIS an Al Qaeda are claiming the control over vast territories, with raids targeted primarily at building up local financial and human capital (in: https://www.investigaction.net/es/terrorismo-la-faz-oscura-de- la-globalizacion/ - consulted on: 2 May 2018). 58 ROSATO, Valeria. “Al Qaeda nel Sahel: organizzazioni ‘ibride’ tra terrorismo e crimine organizzato”, Sicurezza Nazionale, 3 March 2015, pp.1-13, Available at: https://goo.gl/BsvBZ3 (consulted on: 2 May 2018). Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 13 - Año: 2019 - Págs.: 181 a 212
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