This volume examines the far-reaching consequences of illicit trade for Safety, Security, and Sustainability. Bringing together studies of human trafficking, migrant smuggling, trafficking in cultural objects, counterfeiting, sanctions evasion, illicit financial flows, wildlife trafficking, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and cybercrime, it asks a simple but fundamental question: what does illicit trade do to societies?

Moving beyond approaches that treat illicit trade primarily as a matter of criminal activity, regulatory failure, or illegal markets, the volume develops a shared framework for analysing its consequences across different sectors. Safety draws attention to harms affecting individuals and communities; Security captures threats to public order, institutional authority, organised power, and international governance; and Sustainability highlights longer-term consequences for environments, markets, social cohesion, cultural continuity, public institutions, and future generations. The chapters also show why illicit trade cannot simply be equated with illegal trade, examining the grey zones in which legality, legitimacy, social acceptance, and harm do not always coincide.

Combining insights from criminology, political science, international relations, law, economics, and related fields, the volume provides a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to illicit trade while preserving the distinctive characteristics of individual markets and practices. It will be of interest to scholars, students, policymakers, practitioners, and civil-society organisations working on illicit economies, transnational crime, global governance, regulation, and international trade.

This is the first volume of the GLITSS trilogy and the culmination of a four-year collaborative endeavour under the COST Action Globalization, Illicit Trade, Security and Sustainability (GLITSS). Bringing together nearly 300 researchers from 48 countries, the network has developed a shared interdisciplinary approach to understanding illicit trade and strengthening dialogue between academic research and policymaking. The two subsequent volumes examine the causes of illicit trade and the responses developed to address it.

Willem Geelhoed is Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Procedure at the University of Groningen. He is Grant Awarding Coordinator of the COST Action Globalization, Illicit Trade, Security and Sustainability (GLITSS), coordinator of the Groningen-based Illicit Trade Group, and ad hoc judge at the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal. His research focuses on the influence of EU law on criminal law and procedure, on international cooperation in criminal matters, as well as on organised and financial crimes. He has published extensively on topics such as prosecutorial discretion, the European Public Prosecutor's Office and the domestic implementation of EU legislation.

Mara Clemente is an Auxiliary Professor of Sociology at the University of Évora and an Integrated Researcher at CICS.NOVA.UÉvora. She is Vice-chair of the COST Action Globalization, Illicit Trade, Security and Sustainability (GLITSS) and Coordinator of the Thematic Section Globalization, Politics and Citizenship of the Portuguese Sociological Association (APS). Her research interests include questions relating to gender, sexuality and different forms of mobility, including labor migration and issues related to refuge and human trafficking. She is the author of publications in journals such as Social and Legal Studies, Dialectical Anthropology, International Review of Sociology and Vibrant. Among the recent publications is the book, The Immobility Turn: Mobility, Migration and the COVID-19 Pandemic, co-authored with David Cairns, published by Bristol University Press in 2023.

Mirela Imširović is a researcher and author in international relations, and the Director of the Institute for Strategic Analysis and International Cooperation (ISAIC). She serves on the Advisory Team of the Research Center on a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU). She is Science Communication Coordinators for the COST actions Globalization, Illicit Trade, Sustainability and Security (GLITSS) and the Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health in Europe (CliMent). She has contributed to the LEMON LMS for the Council of Europe and to projects on education for democracy and intercultural dialogue. Her research focuses on China-Southeast Europe relations, geopolitics, foreign policy and migration. She is the author of publications in journals such as Sino-Russian Coexistence in Serbia: Strategic Symmetry (2024) and Kashmir at the Nexus of Geopolitics: Reinterpreting Mackinder’s Heartland Theory in the Asian Security Dilemma (2026).

Francesco Giumelli is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Groningen. He is Chair of the COST Action Globalization, Illicit Trade, Security and Sustainability (GLITSS) and Director of the Development, Security and Justice research theme at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on international sanctions, illicit trade, and the role of public and private actors in security governance. He is the author of International Sanctions (Il Mulino, 2023), The Success of Sanctions (Routledge, 2013), and Coercing, Constraining and Signalling (ECPR Press, 2011), and has published widely on sanctions, security governance, and international relations.