Blood Profits, by Vanessa Neumann

How are you enjoying that knock-off handbag?  Or those movies and video games you bought from a street vendor?  Or those cigarettes the guy at the subway entrance was selling?  Or, if you're more inclined toward vices, how about the drugs you're using?  Or the weapons you bought under the table?  So many of these everyday transactions seem harmless, but are, in fact, part of a network that funds and perpetuates violence and oppression on a global scale.

Vanessa Neumann, founder of the Asymmetrica consulting firm, has been around the world a few times and writes about the interconnectedness of terrorism, organized crime and global trade in Blood Profits: How American Consumers Unwittingly Fund Terrorists.  Put simply, "In the world of the crime-terror pipeline (CTP), money from the counterfeit handbags, medicines, and cigarettes ends up buying weapons that kill our soldiers and bombs that terrorize our cities."  Whether we buy them knowingly or in ignorance, illegal goods and the profits from the sale of illegal goods "passes through the hands of Russian mobsters, Muslim jihadists, Mexican cartels, Chinese triads, and Eastern European heads of state."

Neumann herself has on-the-ground experience tracking some of these networks.  Some of what she reveals isn't particularly surprising.  Mexican cartels traffic drugs and weapons--of course.  But I was quite surprised at the depth and complexity of these networks.  Hezbollah setting up operations in Venezuela.  Muslim radicals operating in the Panama Canal free trade zone.  And some of the sources of the profits may not be what you typically think of: mining, sports betting, clothing with athletic team logos, prescription medicines, and gasoline are just a few of the otherwise legal products we might consume but that are potential sources of funding for terrorist groups.

Blood Profits provides important insights for the global economy and diplomacy.  But on a personal level, "we must accept that our personal choices as consumers have global impact with serious repercussions. . . . So much of the deepest suffering and so many of the greatest harms are a consequences of our avaricious or intemperate desires.  We could easily ameliorate global tragedies with only moderate adjustments to our choices as consumers." 

Neumann's treatment is wide-ranging and challenging.  The book rambles a little, as she interweaves her own experiences with broader research in the field, but I did appreciate her personal insights.  She belongs to a wealthy Venezuelan family, so she has particular experience with a corrupt regime which has devastated a country's economy.  Whether in Latin American, the Middle East, Europe, or the United States, she has stuck her neck out and turned over rocks to expose the corruption that ties together failed states, organized crime, and terror.  She's on the front lines of 21st century warfare and people of peace and legitimate governance need to listen up.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!