The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security - Softcover

Kerry, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684846144 ISBN 13: 9780684846149

Publisher: Touchstone, 1998

Synopsis

The New War is a powerful warning that global crime is robbing us not only of our money but also of our way of life. As a result of his Senate investigations and access to law enforcement agencies, Senator John Kerry has seen the dark world of dirty money, violence, and corruption up close. In this groundbreaking book, he describes global crime organizations from Asia to South America, Europe to Africa, and shows why they have become one of the greatest threats to our national security. Kerry takes us inside major crime organizations that now operate on the global stage: the Russian "Mafiya," which includes much of the old Soviet KGB; the Chinese triads, whose tentacles reach into many American cities; the Colombian drug cartels; the Japanese yakuza; and the Sicilian Mafia. Most important, in The New War Kerry maintains that the aim of the global crime lords is to gain control of the very institutions that are the core of civil society - the courts, legislatures, banks, and media in their own countries as well as in the nations where they operate. And he demonstrates how an antiquated legal system is struggling to fight twenty-first-century criminal enterprises. This is a hard-hitting and critical assessment of current government policies for dealing with international crime. Kerry reveals the failures of both diplomacy and nerve that have crippled leaders in Washington and other Western capitals, as well as in Moscow and Beijing. He explains how law enforcement and judicial institutions must be reformed structurally to defeat vicious criminals. His recommendations are specific: Shut down offshore banks that launder and shelter criminal profits; regulate electronic money transfers; expand the scope of extraterritorial jurisdiction for major crimes committed against a country's citizens overseas; use the CIA and other intelligence services to penetrate global crime organizations; share the seized assets of international criminals with governments that cooperate in fighting global crime.

About this title

About the Author:

John Forbes Kerry is a former Secretary of State and five-term US Senator. Kerry is the author of Every Day Is Extra, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, The New War, and the best-selling This Moment on Earth. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale University as well as the inaugural Visiting Distinguished Statesman for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have two daughters, three sons, and seven grandchildren.

From Kirkus Reviews:

From one of the nation's top experts on international crime, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), comes a fascinating overview of the newest generation of criminals and crimes that threaten America. When average Americans think of a crime syndicate, they probably think of the old-style Italian Mafia of movies like Donnie Brasco. That, plus declining homicide figures nationwide, threatens to lull us into a false sense of security. According to Kerry, who until this year was the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, the menace of global crime is greater than ever before. In a richly anecdotal book drawn from his tenure as an insider in the war against crime, Kerry details the newest quintuplet of dangers, which he calls ``The Big Five'': the Italian Mafia, the Russian mobs, the Japanese Yakuza, the Chinese triads, and the Colombian drug cartels. He devotes chapters to each of these threats and explains their growing influence and the ominous signs of transcontinental cooperation among them. Of their significance, Kerry writes: ``In strategy, sophistication and reach the criminal organizations of the late twentieth century function like transnational corporations and make the gangs of the past look like mom-and-pop operations.'' Other chapters are devoted to modern crimes like terrorism, money laundering, and illegal immigration, which the senator says threaten our very way of life. Kerry outlines a plan for meeting the new dangers, which includes the globalization of law enforcement and a ``reengineering of international law'' to allow countries to work together to fight criminals who ignore borders. At its worst moments, the book smells like a political pitch for the 2000 presidential race; at its best, it is a bold call to arms that Americans should not miss. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0684846144
• ISBN 13: 9780684846149
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224