This collection of essays introduces the thriving illicit industries and activities within the global economy whose growth challenges traditional notions of wealth, power, and progress.

Nils Gilman is Senior Practitioner at Monitor 360, a San Francisco based group that helps organizations make sense of complex geo-strategic issues. He is the author of Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).

Jesse Goldhammer is a principal at Deloitte Consulting, where he helps government, philanthropic and corporate clients develop innovative solutions to vexing challenges. He is the author of "The Craft of Incentive Prize Design" (Deloitte University Press, 2014) and The Headless Republic: Sacrificial Violence in Modern French Thought (Cornell University Press, 2005).

Steven Weber is Professor, Political Science and School of Information UC Berkeley, and advisor to Monitor 360, San Franciso, USA.