March 23, 2001
The problems of transnational crime and corruption are among the major problems that will be facing the global community in the 21st century. These problems associated with these topics are many and varied and go beyond the international drug and arms trade to include trafficking in human beings, money laundering and the enormous financial flows connected with corrupt dictators. The United States is not immune to the growth of these problems and provides financial and other services that help facilitate the rise of these problems.
Professor Louise Shelley received her undergraduate degree (cum laude) from Cornell University in Penology and Russian Literature and an M.A. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. She studied at the Law Faculty of Moscow State University on IREX and Fullbright Fellowships and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shelley is currently a Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, and Society and the School of International Service at American University and founder and Director of the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center. She is a leading United States expert on crime, law, and law enforcement in the former Soviet Union, as well as an expert on transnational organized crime and corruption. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, NEH, Kennan Institute and Fullbright fellowships and received a Mac- Arthur Grant to establish the Russian Organized Crime Study Centers. As an advisor to the U.S. government on the problems of post Soviet organized crime, Prof. Shelley has testified before the House International Relations Committee on several occasions, most recently before the House Banking Committee regarding the Bank of New York. She is the author of Policing Soviet Society (Routledge 1997), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Professor Shelley is presently co-editor of Demokraitizatsiya, the Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, and Trends in Organized Crime. Since 1995, she has conducted this program in coordination with specialists in Russia and more recently in Ukraine on the problem of organized crime and corruption. In this role, her expertise is often called upon by many different multi-national organizations and international universities to speak on the subject of organized crime and corruption. Additionally, she frequently appears on television and radio including NPR's Marketplace, PBS, MSNBC, and CNN.