Tag: Transnational Organized Crime (TOC)

This article explores the challenges and opportunities of the counterstrategies to addressing transnational organized crime (TOC) as a security issue in Ethiopia. The study on which this article is based was motivated by two main questions: first, what are the factors that underlie TOC in Ethiopia? Second, what are the challenges of, and limitations to, Ethiopia’s counterstrategies against TOC? The goal of this study was to identify the factors that foster transnational organized crime in Ethiopia, and provide a research-based theoretical and practical explanation about the approaches Ethiopia should follow to tackle the problem of TOC. The study was dependent on secondary sources of data, and identified various counterstrategies on TOC including a Law and Order Approach, Enterprise Approach, Development Approach, Security Approach, Administrative Approach and Integrated Approach. The article presents a theoretical explanation of the counterstrategies against TOC based on theories of change. Accordingly, legislative gaps, lack of a national guiding strategic document on TOC, weak institutional cooperation, the complexity of investigating and prosecuting TOC, corruption in the public sector, and convergence of terrorism with TOC, have been identified as the major challenges of addressing TOC in Ethiopia. On the other hand, enhanced mutual legal assistance and extradition processes, expanding the presence of Ethiopian law enforcement agents abroad, collaboration with INTERPOL, and rigorous legislative reform as regards TOC have been elaborated as the main opportunities for dealing with this crime in Ethiopia.