Education

As part of GLITSS’s educational activities, Francesca Finelli and Lucas Tosi Rodriguez organized a series of three roundtables exploring the question: How should we teach illicit trade? The discussions brought together academics and experts with experience in teaching, training and working with practitioners in different countries and institutional settings.

Illicit trade is a complex and constantly evolving phenomenon. It encompasses a wide range of markets and activities, from drug trafficking and counterfeit goods to environmental crime, illicit financial flows, human trafficking and emerging forms of digital crime. Its boundaries are not always clear-cut: what is illegal, illicit or informal may vary across sectors, jurisdictions and contexts. Understanding illicit trade requires perspectives from different disciplines, including criminology, law, economics, sociology, political science and international relations. This makes illicit trade not only an important subject to study, but also a particularly challenging one to teach.

The first roundtable looked beyond the university classroom, examining training on illicit trade for policymakers, law-enforcement officials, practitioners and other professional audiences. The second and third roundtables turned to teaching within academia, bringing together different European and US perspectives on how illicit trade can be incorporated into university courses and programmes.

Across the three discussions, participants reflected on some of the central choices involved in designing education on illicit trade: how to approach such a broad concept; whether to focus on particular illicit markets or identify common dynamics across them; how to adapt teaching to different audiences; and how to integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives. Particular attention was also given to how illicit trade is taught. Case studies, current events, practitioner contributions, comparative examples, simulations, group projects, policy briefs and other forms of active learning emerged as ways of connecting conceptual knowledge with the realities of illicit markets. The discussions also highlight the importance of moving beyond the passive transmission of knowledge and encouraging students and professionals to analyze complex problems, understand their wider social and institutional contexts, and critically assess possible responses.

The roundtables do not propose a single model for teaching illicit trade. Instead, they highlight the diversity of approaches that can be adopted depending on the audience, learning objectives and context. Together, the three conversations provide ideas, experiences and practical reflections for academics, trainers and practitioners interested in developing courses, modules or training activities on illicit trade.

The three recordings below provide the full discussions and offer a starting point for thinking about how knowledge on illicit trade can be translated into meaningful educational experiences.