Organized Crime and Terrorism: A Symbiotic Relationship Affecting the Global Economy

Abstract

The article examines the connections between organized crime and terrorism, arguing that both are branches of contemporary macro-criminality and that, rather than remaining isolated phenomena, they develop a relationship of functional interdependence. The author adopts a multidisciplinary approach to show that these forms of criminality deeply affect law, economics, politics, and institutional stability, highlighting globalization, state fragility, and corruption as factors that foster their expansion. The text argues that the traditional distinction between organized crime, driven by profit, and terrorism, oriented toward ideological aims, has become insufficient, since terrorist organizations have also come to rely on illicit trade networks, trafficking, money laundering, and other clandestine economic activities to finance their actions. From this perspective, transnational illegal commerce, porous borders, infiltration into public institutions, and the co-optation of state agents reveal the direct impact of these phenomena on the global economy and on democratic order. In conclusion, the study advocates coordinated public policies, institutional continuity, technical training, national and international cooperation, and legislative improvement as indispensable conditions for the effective fight against macro-criminality.