This special issue raises the prospect of trust-based determinants of security communities other than cultural similarity. The case studies in this special issue document the emergence of cross-border and transgovernmental policy and enforcement networks that facilitate policy development, implementation and alignment through coordination, cooperation, and collaboration: nascent communities coordinate, ascendant communities coordinate and cooperate but struggle to collaborate, while mature communities coordinate, cooperate, and collaborate. Specifically, pluralistic forms of communication and interactions away from the actual borderline seem to play a key role in the emergence of friendly and trustful relationships among border dyads that need not necessarily be contiguous.

Canada and the US The United States and Canada have a long tradition of bilateral and binational security coordination, cooperation and collaboration. This is evident in a vast and growing number of transgovernmental networks that facilitate and enable policy alignment and parallelism in defence, border security, intelligence and counter-terrorism. The security community has mastered coordination and cooperation. The US–Canada relationship is based on reciprocity. Despite its common cultural bedrock though, the US–Canada security community's hallmark is policy parallelism. Forms of mature collaboration remain limited and are only found on occasion. Partnerships have proven more successful in functional areas than in principled ones.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between trade-based money laundering and organized crime. Trade-based money laundering (TBML) has emerged as the newest and possibly most complex method used by organized crime and white-collar crime groups for illegally laundering money in the international financial system. Using legitimate global trade streams, criminal organizations are able to transfer billions of dollars annually between jurisdictions without having to adhere to state-level currency regulations. Design/methodology/approach Using a rational approach to understanding the behavior of criminal organizations, it is argued that TBML will continue to grow as a preferred methodology for laundering money internationally. As criminal organizations continue to be displaced from the more traditional methods of money laundering, they will look for and find TBML as a viable alternative for moving money between different jurisdictions. Findings As the methodology becomes more developed, the skill set will transfer to an increasing number of organized crime groups and be incorporated as a mainstream method for laundering and moving money. Practical implications - To stay current with contemporary money laundering schemes, law enforcement agencies will have to train their investigators to spot, investigate and collect requisite evidence for successful prosecution and disruption of TBML offences. Moreover, in the absence of a global regime for sharing trade and customs information, legislators and law enforcement agencies will have to consider how to best expedite the sharing of trade and customs information. Originality/value This is the only study to address TBML as an emerging money laundering technique and the transfer of the skill between organized crime groups. It further details the skills that police investigators needs to develop to successfully combat TBML.

The Canada–US security relationship has always been one of balance: creating institutions that balance the power differential, balancing domestic, regional and global interests, balancing identity considerations and balancing the ideas that drive our respective state and bilateral policies forward. However, time might challenge the balanced relationship between Canada and the United States; the two countries are continually able to return the relationship to a secure and stable homeostasis. Although the current era of Trump and Trudeau may punctuate that equilibrium, the bilateral security relationship will remain robust nonetheless. This paper examines continuity and change in the bilateral security relationship as a function of these shared institutions, interests, identities and ideas in four areas of cross-border cooperation: policing, military, intelligence sharing and border enforcement.

The cities of Narva, Estonia and Ivangorod, Russia are separated physically by the Narva River—and by an imposing border regime. By contrast, prior to 1991 they were joined by a bridge and shared r...

This article re-evaluates earlier work done by the authors on Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) in North America, using sectoral analysis initially developed by Buzan and Waever, but also adding the variables of institutions, identity, and interests. These variables are assessed qualitatively in the contemporary context on how they currently impress upon the process of securitization within sectoral relations between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The article reviews the movement from bilateral security relations between these states to the development of a trilateral response to regional security challenges post- 9/11. It further addresses the present period and what appears to be a security process derailed by recent political changes and security inequalities, heightened by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The article argues that while these three states initially evinced a convergence of regional security interests after 9/11, which did create new institutional responses, under the current conditions, divergence in political interests and security inequalities have reduced the explanatory power of RSCT in North America. Relations between states in North American are becoming less characterized by the role of institutions and interests and more by identity politics in the region.

This article argues that cross-border communities can engage with one another to reduce the transaction costs associated with a securitized border. Using Collective Efficacy Theory to frame this argument, we propose that there are certain effectual variables that are important to successful cross-border community engagement. The paper concludes with some observations about the nature of borders, including the fragmented nature of international borders, and the role of competing values, norms, and discourse in defining the border as an institution.

Canada's federal political system has to reconcile differences over the balance between shared rule and self-rule concerning two bedrock principles of the constitutional government: the rule of law and democratic oversight of the exercise of the power of the state to ensure that it is not usurped. The hallmark of the administration of multilevel security governance in Canada is horizontal and vertical differentiation of diverse territorial and non-territorial community values, preferences, interests and values has given rise to the asymmetric decentralization. This article maps the historical and constitutional roots, and then draws on examples in a survey of its institutional structure across three levels of government. It concludes by discussing the governance challenges that shared sovereignty and mismatched jurisdictional authorities pose for the effective and efficient provision of public safety in Canada. Sommaire Le systeme politique federal canadien doit reconcilier des differences au sujet de l'equilibre entre le partage du pouvoir et l'autonomie concernant deux principes fondamentaux du gouvernement constitutionnel : la primaute du droit et la surveillance democratique de l'exercice du pouvoir de l'Etat afin de veiller a ce qu'il ne soit pas usurpe. La differentiation horizontale et verticale d'une variete de valeurs, de preferences et d'interets communautaires territoriaux et non territoriaux a entraine la decentralisation asymetrique qui est la caracteristique de l'administration de la gouvernance de la securite a niveaux multiples au Canada. Cet article etablit les racines historiques et constitutionnelles, puis s'appuie sur des exemples d'un sondage de sa structure institutionnelle aux trois paliers de gouvernement. Il se termine par une discussion sur les defis de gouvernance que posent la souverainete partagee et les autorites de juridictions depareillees pour maintenir de maniere efficace et efficiente la securite publique au Canada.

Dans la panoplie de mécanismes de l’appareil gouvernemental moderne, aucune relation n’est plus semée d’embûches que celle qui existe entre le gouvernement et la société qu’il faut protéger à la fois des menaces extérieures et des troubles internes. La différenciation horizontale et verticale de diverses valeurs collectives, préférences et intérêts a donné lieu à une décentralisation asymétrique qui est le propre de la gouvernance multiniveau des mesures de sécurité, de protection civile et d’urgence au Canada. Cet article trace l’évolution constitutionnelle du système à travers les trois ordres de gouvernement et illustre son fonctionnement à l’aide de deux études de cas. L’effet de décentralisation et d’asymétrie et le désalignement constitutionnel entre les premiers intervenants aux niveaux municipal et provincial par rapport à la capacité d’intervention du fédéral rendent indispensable la collaboration entre les divers paliers.