Irregular Warfare in Strategic Competition and Gray Zones: Prosecuting Authoritarian Subversion and Exploitative Use of Corruption and Criminality to Weaken Democracy 

Speakers: David Luna (Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies, LLC)

Date: 22 August 2024 (Time TBD)

Speaker Session Summary

US adversaries, including China, Russia, and Iran, aim to diminish Western influence while expanding their own in many countries. They employ various strategies, such as leveraging proxies, transnational organized crime and kleptocrats, which can undermine democracies and the rule of law. Mr. Luna, founder of the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE), highlighted the complexity of these criminal and illicit threat networks. He emphasized the need for increased intelligence sharing among allies to counter the growth of these networks and the overall illicit economy, which has grown exponentially over the past decade to an estimated $3 to $5 trillion annually, potentially making it likely one of the five largest global economies. 

Governments use these criminal and illicit threat networks to gain leverage in other countries and increase their economic wealth. Specifically, China, Russia, and Iran seek to gain advantages over the US and other Western democracies while avoiding direct conflict by engaging in activities in the Grey Zone. These criminal networks and illicit threat provide not only political leverage but also access to valuable resources and strategic infrastructure, such as ports. For example, Iran has utilized its military cooperation with Venezuela and Bolivia to access ports throughout Latin America. Similarly, Russia exploits its paramilitary groups to foster corruption and gain access to valuable resources in Africa. Mr. Luna identified the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the largest supporter of the transnational illicit economy, noting its significant involvement in human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms dealing, other illicit trades, and money laundering. He argued that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its global police stations serve China’s illicit interests. 

Mr. Luna also proposed several actions that the United States and its allies could take to counter adversary criminal and illicit threat activities. His recommendations include enhancing cross-border information sharing, expanding special action teams, and increasing the adversarial cost of malign political influence within the illicit economy. 

Speaker Session Recording

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Biography: David Luna is the founder of ICAIE (International Coalition Against Illicit Economies). Prior to ICAIE, Luna was the Senior Director for National Security & Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and focused on strengthening international cooperation in fighting threat illicit threat networks, including the inter-connections between corruption, organized crime, illicit trade, money laundering, and malign influence. David Luna also helped launch the OECD (Organization for Economic Coordination and Development) task force on countering illicit trade and helped lead numerous diplomatic initiatives globally on fighting corruption and organized crime.  He was also the Assistant Counsel to the President, Office of the Counsel to the President, The White House, and had other positions in the U.S. Government and U.S. Congress.