Finance and Security

Description

The global financial sector is increasingly vulnerable to penetration by criminal money launderers, financiers of terrorism, and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, it offers instruments that can be usefully employed to pursue foreign and security policy objectives. It is thus hardly surprising that finance has emerged as an arena of intense competition, if not conflict, between those seeking to exploit or attack this vital element of state power and those tasked with defending its integrity or harnessing it for legal purposes.

Navias assesses the key threats to financial systems and shows how the public and private sectors are co-operating to contain them. He analyses the main characteristics of criminal money laundering and terrorist financing, and reviews major multilateral and national regimes locked in the perpetual battle to shore up the financial sector against these constantly evolving security challenges. He also considers the uses of finance in support of key sanctions, counterproliferation, and arms embargo policies.

Uniquely, Finance and Security views these financial threats and weapons through a security and war studies prism. It will be equally invaluable to scholars of security and international relations and to professionals working in the legal, banking and compliance professions.

Reviews

 ‘A valuable addition to the literature on this clandestine universe.’ — CHOICE

‘This detailed work … studies the growth of illegal financial activities across borders, including the money laundering of drug dealers, human traffickers, and terrorist financers. [Finance and Security] is a necessary handbook for anyone doing international business who wants to stay within the law.’ — Foreign Affairs

‘A careful analysis of the vulnerability of global financial systems to international terrorism and other criminal activity.’ — African Business

‘Finance and Security expertly goes into the money laundering and financial crime risks that are threatening to undermine global financial systems.’ — Michael Harris, LexisNexis

‘Don’t fall for the idea that finance is dry; the stories Navias tells are as dramatic and famous as any of our time – of Osama bin Laden; Mexican and Colombian cartels; and the London property market.’ — Professional Security Magazine

‘Martin Navias provides a comprehensive, detailed, and empirically rich introduction to money laundering, terrorist finance, and the various tools and instruments through which they are countered. A must read for practitioners of finance and security alike!’ — Peter R. Neumann, Professor of Security Studies at King’s College London, and author of Bluster: Donald Trump’s War on Terror

‘This is a well written and useful introduction to issues of finance and security.’ — Michael Levi, Professor of Criminology at Cardiff University

Author(s)

Martin S. Navias is a banking and finance lawyer working in the City of London. He specialises in anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and financial sanctions compliance, and also teaches finance and security in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. His previous books include Nuclear Weapons and British Strategic Planning; Going Ballistic; Tanker Wars (co-written with  E.Hooton); and Non-Conventional Weapons Proliferation in the Middle East (edited with E. Karsh and P. Sabin).