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Misha GlennyBritish journalist
Country:
 Great Britain |
Content:
- Biography of Misha Glenny
- Early Life and Education
- Journalism Career
- Exploring Organized Crime
- Contributions and Insights
- Later Life and Career
Biography of Misha Glenny
Misha Glenny is a British journalist who fearlessly tackles some of the most dangerous topics, from drug cartels to the Russian mafia. His main focus is organized crime, and he believes that in terms of structure, development, and global reach, organized crime can be compared to giants like Google and Microsoft.
Early Life and Education
Misha Glenny was born in 1958. He is the son of the late British writer and translator Michael Glenny. He received his education at Magdalen College School and then Bristol University. He also studied at Prague's Charles University.
Journalism Career
After starting his career as a journalist, Glenny joined "The Guardian" where he specialized in reporting on Central Europe. Later, he began working for the BBC. In the early 1990s, he covered the Yugoslav wars and received the prestigious 'Sony Gold Award' in 1993 for his reporting. Glenny has written three books about Central and Eastern Europe, and his book "McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld" (2008) brought the topic of organized crime to the forefront. In the book, Glenny suggests that organized crime may account for up to 15% of global GDP.
Exploring Organized Crime
Glenny has traveled to many criminal hotspots around the world, including Eastern Europe, Africa, America, and the Middle East. Regardless of the location, his focus has always been on the mafia and organized crime. According to his theory, the global mafia gained significant influence during the period before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many celebrities found themselves unwanted in their own country, leading them to seek alternative ways of making a living. Among these individuals were famous athletes, spies, agents, informants, former executives, and party leaders. Glenny believes these people played a pivotal role in Eastern Europe's transition to a market economy. He elegantly demonstrates how businessmen operated in Eastern European countries after the fall of the Soviet system.
Contributions and Insights
Glenny's study of organized crime began in Bulgaria in the late 1980s, and during the 1990s, while in Yugoslavia, he made unsettling discoveries. He found that those responsible for the most notorious war crimes were also involved in mafia structures. Determined to explore the criminal world further, Glenny engaged with police officers, victims, consumers of criminal services, and even the mafiosi themselves. Today, Glenny firmly believes that organized crime operates just like any other business worldwide. It has its production and consumption zones, its own laws, and its associated side effects. He compares the number of people involved in this business and the number of fatalities to that of World War II. In his books, Glenny presents shocking statistics and provides bleak predictions that organized crime may account for up to 15% of global GDP.
Later Life and Career
Starting from January 2012, Misha Glenny served as a visiting professor at the Harriman Institute in Columbia University. Among Glenny's other notable books are "The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers" (1999) and "DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You" (2011).
It is known that Misha Glenny is married to journalist Kirsty Lang, and they have three children.
