New SWJ–El Centro Anthology Released: Third Generation Gangs and Transnational Cartels
Small Wars Journal–El Centro is pleased to announce the publication of Third Generation Gangs and Transnational Cartels. The curated anthology edited by Senior Fellows John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker is divided into three parts: Third Generation Gangs, Transnational Cartels, and Cross Cutting Issues.
- Part I: Third Generation Gangs includes 17 chapters addressing third generation gangs and includes contributions by a range of authors including Paul Rexton Kan, Juan Ricardo Gómez Hecht, Pamela Ruiz, José de Arimatéia da Cruz, Pablo A. Baisotti, Jonathan D. Rosen, and Diego Ramírez Sánchez, along with Sullivan and Bunker. Regions covered include Latin America, South Africa, and the Caribbean, with specific chapters looking at Brazil, Cape Town, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, and the Tri-border region at the confluence of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, Gangs covered include MS-13, Barrio 18, and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and the tree de Aragua (TdA).
- Part II: Transnational Gangs includes 15 chapters by Sullivan, bunker, Alexander Elfes, Paulina Rios Maya, Daniel Weisz Argomedo, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Rajendra G. Kulkarni, Patrick R. Baxter, Naoru Koizumi, Francisco Sollano Jr, Tomás Andres Michael Carvallo, Raúl Benítez Manaut, Josué Ángel González Torres, Charles Lewis, William Yaworsky, Jorge Mantilla, and Renato Rivera. Topics covered include cross-border corruption potentials, militarized criminal networks, assassinations of public officials, nartco-hybrid threats, propaganda and information operations, social networks analyses of various cartels and cartel actors, extortion, corruption, money laundering, and transnational drug trafficking.
- Part III. Cross Cutting Issues includes 10 chapters with contributions by Luis Jorge Garay-Salamanca, Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán, Guillermo Macías, Chris Telley, Carlos Frederico De Oliveira Pereira, Alma Keshavarz, Edgardo Buscaglia, Evan Ellis, Jonathan Rosen, Frederick M. Shepard, Mahmut Cengiz, Camilo Pardo-Herrera, Diego Ramírez Sánchez, Rashmi Singh and Jorge Lasmar. Topics covered include corruption, including the Lava-Jato case, criminal (and narco) governance, the gaps between international human rights law and international humanitarian law in addressing criminal violence, narcoterrorism, and global criminal-terrorist network connections.
In addition, the text includes a foreword by Rashmi Singh, an introduction and conclusion by Sullivan and Bunker, and Afterword by Alexandra Phelan, and a postscript by Mahmut Cengiz on the security implications of designation Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
Abstract:
Third Generation Gangs and Transnational Cartels brings closure to the long running Small Wars Journal–El Centro Anthology series edited by Dr. John P. Sullivan and Dr. Robert J. Bunker under the auspices of the Small Wars Foundation. The curated work focuses on Latin American gangs, cartels, and the cross-cutting issues related to them. Its forty-four chapters and supporting front and back essays highlight the important contributions of some forty scholars and practitioners in the fields of criminal insurgency, gang studies, and transnational organized crime. The chapters span the mid-2018 through later-2024 period, with the inclusion of late 2024 and early 2025 essays specifically written to give context and provide analysis related to this work. The anthology benefits from a Foreword provided by Dr. Rashmi Singh, an Afterword offered by Dr. Alexandra Phelan, and a Postscript written by Dr. Mahmut Cengiz.
This curated anthology with contributions by El Centro Fellows and Associates, as well as seasoned and emerging scholars of global security and transnational crime provides a foundation for understanding and addressing contemporary global security issues involving transnational (third generation) gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, Eds., Third Generation Gangs and Transnational Cartels, (A Small Wars Journal–El Centro Anthology). Bloomington: Xlibris, 2025 [ISBN: 979-8369442999, Paperback, 782 Pages]
