In the past three decades, technology has changed the fundamentals of trade, in legitimate and illegal economies. The most advanced forms of illicit trade have broken with all historical precedents and operate as if on steroids, tied to computers and social media. Dark Commerce examines how new technology, communications, and globalisation fuel the exponential growth of dangerous forms of illegal trade - the markets for narcotics and child pornography, the escalation of sex trafficking, and the sale of endangered species. The illicit economy exacerbates many of the world’s destabilising phenomena: the perpetuation of conflicts, the proliferation of arms and weapons of mass destruction, and environmental degradation and extinction. Dark Commerce demonstrates that the dark market is a business the global community cannot afford to ignore.

‘Dark Commerce tells a gripping tale of how the exponential growth of illicit trade is risking human and planetary well-being. Revealing the sordid underbelly of a globalized trading system, this book is a must-read for all who are concerned with our collective future.’ - Frances Beinecke, former president of the Natural Resources Defense Council