The Role of Financial and Business Intelligence in a Globalized World

Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, Intelligence Agencies and security Services have significantly extended their skills in the financial, economic and technological sectors. The growing impact of organized crime, which has enormous financial resources, is also widespread. The "cleansing" of dirty money and the massive investments made in certain productive sectors have become a real threat, which affects every country. The increase of the financial and economic Intelligence is related primarily to the geo-economic competition between states, the globalization of markets and production, and the fact that the internationalization of property has been added to the traditional competition for the conquest of markets related to the ownership structure of the social groups and the location of the manufacturing companies. While in the past the objective of companies was the market, now also the portfolio is important. This causes a notable dynamism of the ownership structures and therefore a potential instability even in the division of labor. Hostile acquisitions, destabilizing financial maneuvers, industrial espionage of the technological assets of national companies are possible. In this sense, geo-economics has assumed a more important role than geostrategy in the new international geopolitics. States must therefore equip themselves for geo-economic competition as they were in the past focused on the geostrategic one.