Hybridization of International Terrorism and Transnational Crime at the Present Stage

The relevance of research. The issue of systemic hybridization and linkage between international terrorism and transnational crime is one of the topical topics of scientific research in the field of politics, law, and security. There is no consensus among experts on whether certain types of criminal organizations should be classified as terrorist or not. The blurring of the boundaries between these actors makes it difficult to analyze this problem to a certain extent. Of particular interest in the analysis of this issue are drug cartels, since they have power, a transnational scale of activity, and the ability to control vast territories sometimes replacing the state with them. Research novelty. It has been determined under what conditions criminal structures and specifically drug cartels should be equated with terrorist organizations. For the first time we have developed a trilateral continuum "criminal-terrorism-state" on the basis of which the integration between criminal organizations, terrorism, and the state is shown. Goals and objectives of the study. Under what conditions criminal organizations become indistinguishable from terrorist ones. Show the mutual influence of crime, terrorism, and the state on each other. The source base consists of scientific publications (articles, monographs, dissertations) as well as analytical resources and the media. Conclusions. Criminal organizations should be equated with terrorist organizations when the result of their criminal activity causes such damage to the state and its institutions as if they had set themselves political goals. The weaker the state and its institutions the more it integrates with crime and (or) terrorism. At a certain stage there is actually a complete integration of the state and non-state subject as a result of which they become indistinguishable and inseparable from each other.