All three of these cases involve Russia, and because they are being reported at all, they represent successes rather than failures in combating crime. But on another day, a similar set of cases might involve any of a number of countries where the national authorities lack either the ability or the will to police such actions or where the authorities themselves are involved in criminal activities of one sort or another. Analysts have focused on the many ways in which the new globalism allows individual corporations to escape the constraints that individual governments seek to impose. But if legitimate businesses are able to use their international positions to do that, criminal groups are even more inclined and have in many respects even greater opportunities. The Internet shows little respect for borders, and criminals are using that.
Banking is now worldwide and electronic, and criminals are taking advantage of that.
Some have suggested that the creation of an international economy will ultimately lead to the creation of a new supranational state. But efforts to promote such an arrangement have not been successful. That leaves only expanded intelligence and police cooperation as the best means of fighting international crime in cases where national governments are unable to address it on their own. Over the last decade, an increasing number of countries have sent representatives of their law enforcement agencies to other countries both for visits and on a long-term basis to increase cooperation and the sharing of information. Moreover, ever more countries are turning to Interpol, the international police organization, to share information and to track down criminals.