For decades, the international discourse on human trafficking for sexual exploitation has been limited into a rigid dichotomy. On one side, the Moral approach portrays North-African and European sex-work migration as a story of absolute victimization, where women are abducted or tricked by traffickers.

In Lithuania, there is increasing talk of the need to strengthen defense capabilities, develop local defense industry, and increase participation in international supply chains.

Cross-border trade in services has been a smaller, often neglected, brother of the international trade in goods. Yet, while the trade in goods has been severely affected by the recent episodes of COVID-induced global value chain disruptions and is under constant threat from potential tariff wars, the global trade in services is showing of a speedy recovery to pre-pandemic growth trend.

Few global challenges expose the limits of national power as clearly as illicit trade. Criminal networks move faster than legislation, exploit technological change, and thrive in the gaps between jurisdictions, turning borders into opportunities rather than barriers.

As a grantee of the CA21133 (GLITSS) Action, I had the opportunity to present my research at the EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC) 2025, one of the largest and most influential academic events in the field of International studies.

When people hear the expression “illicit trade”, they often imagine shadowy networks operating outside the state something exceptional criminal and clearly separable from everyday life. What I keep encountering in the Middle East is something far more uncomfortable.