http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2005/Martinezlicit.

html# Globalization [in Argentina] is viewed, as almost everywhere else in Latin America, as a diabolical conspiracy of multilateral organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank, as well as an ill-intentioned repertoire of schemes perpetrated by multinational enterprises to weaken a small nation's sovereignty and make poor countries even poorer. Cab drivers, newspaper columnists, bartenders, local rock stars, politicians, brainy scholars and, of course, the host of "fast thinkers" that are usually invited to discuss national issues on radio and TV talk-shows agree in denouncing "la globalizacon" as the main cause of this once-rich country's calamities. And, they recommend doing everything possible to have it reverted. Paul Kennedy, the respected Yale University historian, affirms that in all this anti-globalization rhetoric you can perceive evidence of how deep and ample the fear of capitalism still is, despite the collapse of all the 20th century's forms of socialism. Still, it is very disappointing that a great deal of what we can read or hear on globalization, even in academic venues far removed from the streets of a Third World city hosting a summit, amounts to nothing more than a feebly elaborate version of Maradona's war-cry: "Resist!" "Resist" is certainly a short word that can make feel some people righteous and brave enough, up to the point of throwing Molotov cocktails at a MacDonald's outlet as if they were braving artillery fire to raid La Bastille fortress and free the prisoners. But it does not help much when it comes to truly understand what a vertiginous and innovating phenomenon globalization is or properly assess the myriads of never-before-imagined effects it has brought about in just a few years time. Truly, globalization may well be about World Bank's ill-advised policies and multinational CEO's schemes. But, it is, ultimately also a human phenomenon caused and determined by far more forces and variables than just the so-called "Washington's consensus" menus. Perhaps one of the most illuminating approaches to the real nature of globalization that I have ever read so far is Mr. Moiss Nam's Illicit: How smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy. Mr. Nam affirms in one of the first chapters of his book that the dramatic expansion of world trade6 percent on average from 1990 to 2000also created ample room for illicit trade. But the main assertion of Mr. Nam's book is that "in the coming decades, the activities of the global trafficking networks and their associates will have a far greater impact than is commonly imagined on international relations, development strategies, democracy promotion, business and finance, migration, global security, and war and peace." So the story of illicit activities in the coming years will not just be about crime but, to put it in Mr. Nam's words, "about a new form of politics in the twenty-first century. And about the new economic realities that have brought to the fore a whole new set of political actors whose values may collide with yours and mine, and whose intentions threaten us all." In the face of what professor Maradona might recommend to reverse globalization, a strong proof of the definitive consolidation of global economics is the mere fact that the wars against illicit trafficking are being fiercely waged out there. Right now, while you read this article, the good guys are still losing.