Based upon extraordinary fieldwork including interviews with scores of informants—smugglers, victims, power elites, and profiteers who populate economic war zones in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the U.S.—this compelling investigation of crime, money, and power shows the sum total of extralegal activities as representing a significant part of the world's economy, and provides a new framework for understanding 21st century economics and economic power.



With a new preface placing Global Outlaws in the context of increasingly globalized crime, including Internet crime, author Carolyn Nordstrom powerfully reveals the illusions and realities of security in all areas of transport and trade, and illuminates many of the difficult ethical problems these extralegal activities pose.

Carolyn Nordstrom is Professor of Anthropology at Notre Dame and author of several books including Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century and Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Culture.

“An ethnographically rich, peopled account of the global economy.”—Times Higher Education

“Global outlaws intrigues. The tales that it contains are always interesting and often fascinating.”—Jrnl of the Royal Anthropological Inst

“An important contribution toward rethinking and complicating classical views of economies and how to study them, while challenging us to rethink and complicate our reflexive image of ‘crime’ and the ‘criminal.’”—Law & Politics Book Review

“A poetic and hard-nosed intellectual travelogue, starting on a dusty street in Angola with a child selling Marlboros and ending with human traffic in China.”—The Guardian

“Nordstrom’s personal approach to this global issue sets her book apart. . . . An important book.”—New Scientist

"A deeply insightful book that connects the dots of the hidden systems that have subverted democracy and caused the type of desperation and anger that result in a 9/11. A book that opens our awareness."—John Perkins, author of The New York Times bestseller Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man

"Anyone interested in global economic crime should read this book."—Charmian Gooch, a founding director of Global Witness

"Global Outlaws is a revealing book about a global trend whose importance is still far from being fully recognized."—Moises Naim, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine and author of Illicit: How Smugglers Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy

"Carolyn Nordstrom's important new book takes us on a dark journey through war-torn landscapes riddled with corruption, violence, and gross inequalities. It is a compelling study—one guided by the norms of scholarly research but also written out of deeply felt experience. A book infused by anger, compassion, but also hope."—Andrew Mack, University of British Columbia

"This is a fascinating, insightful, and important ethnographic study of the intersection of crime, finance, and power in the illegal, 'informal', or underground economy. I have read all of Carolyn Nordstrom's books, and this is the best one yet."—Jeff Sluka, Massey University

"Carolyn Nordstrom's Global Outlaws is a rare and remarkable fusion of economic anthropology and travel writing. The prose is highly engaging without being sensationalistic. This is a timely and fascinating read for anyone looking for an on-the-ground account of the clandestine underside of globalization."—Peter Andreas, co-author of Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations

"Carolyn Nordstrom is the best fieldworker in anthropology, bar none. Yet again she has pioneered new fieldsites and new forms of ethnography in this book, as well as presented a new framework for viewing economics and economic power. This is undoubtedly a highly important work that sets new frontiers for anthropology."—Monique Skidmore, Australian National University

SEA Book Prize, The Society for Economic Anthropology