About

Mark Nance is an Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His teaching areas include International Political Economy, European politics, Transnational Illicit Economies, and Social Science Research and Writing. His research generally focuses on formal and informal means of global governance within the global political economy, with particular emphasis on the illicit economy and global financial relations. His past work has analyzed efforts to respond to maritime piracy and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and most of his work considers the extent and limits of meaningful cooperation in the context of international money laundering, especially in relation to the Financial Action Task Force. His current projects include examining the use of blacklists in anti-money laundering regimes and the politics of North-South financial relations, engaging with multiple national and international organizations involved in these efforts. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and has conducted fieldwork in multiple countries.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Computer Security
• Law
• Telecommunications
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Law and economics
• Economic history
• Business
• Finance
• International trade

Selected publications

• Blame Game

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-05-21 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the early 2010s, banks in the Global North began ending or denying correspondent banking relationships with banks in the Global South, a trend known as “de-risking.” Banks culling these relationships blamed overzealous anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulation in the Global North and insufficient AML/CFT systems in the Global South. De-risking resulted in some developing countries and territories seeing their access to the global financial infrastructure severely restricted, slowing the movement of money and raising costs, including for remittances. This is an undesirable outcome for the targeted jurisdictions, but also for policymakers in the Global North who, for a variety of reasons, want North–South banking relationships to continue. Despite patchy evidence that de-banking was linked to AML, the banking industry leveraged the threat of de-risking and the claim of its tie to AML in order to successfully push back against AML regulation, a first for the AML regime. The case shows the infrastructural power of banks in global financial governance and highlights how state power can be challenged where financial flows are concerned. Local reactions to the episode provide hints about strategies that might loosen the colonial ties that still bind the global financial infrastructure together.

  PublisherDOI

• The Limits of Enforcement in Global Financial Governance: Blacklisting in FATF as Rational Myth

  International Studies Quarterly · 2024 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Law and economics
  • Business

  Abstract How might international institutions matter? To consider this central question of International Relations, we analyze a most-likely case for the importance of materially driven enforcement: the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) use of blacklisting in the global regime targeting money laundering and terrorism financing. Scholars and practitioners often argue that fear of financial harm caused by FATF’s lists explains the near-global commitment to FATF’s standards, even if compliance lags. We search for statistical evidence of this impact across four different measures of financial flows and find that listing is not correlated with financial harm. To explain these null results, we examine bank decision-making and find that the lists’ impact is likely diminished by two overlooked factors: the existence of multiple, competing lists and banks’ access to more fine-grained, client-specific information provided by third-party companies. We interpret this contradiction—a commitment to compliance generated in part by a fear of enforcement, despite a lack of evidence for enforcement’s impact—as a “rational myth.” The results challenge a common understanding of a major global governance regime, confirm ideas about the limited ability of states or International Organizations to control governance outcomes, and advance a new research agenda on the impact of bank decision-making on global governance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Thank You to Reviewers

  Global Studies Quarterly · 2024

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Computer Science
  DOI

• Julia C. Morse. 2022. The Bankers’ Blacklist: Unofficial Market Enforcement and the Global Fight Against Illicit Financing. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press). Michele Riccardi. 2022. Money Laundering Blacklists. (New York: Routledge). Nkechikwu Valerie Azinge-Egbiri. 2021. Regulating and Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: The Law in Emerging Economies. (New York: Routledge)

  The Review of International Organizations · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Economic history
  PublisherDOI

• The Nordic Model and Structural Change: Lessons from the Collapse of Saab Automobile AB

  Intereconomics · 2018-07-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The case of Saab and Trollhättan shows one way that societies can harness the productive side of creative destruction while mitigating the harm it causes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What We Can Learn from the Nordic Model

  Intereconomics · 2018-07-01

  articleOpen access

  Considered role models for governance, equality, and social and economic policy, the Nordic countries rank near the top of every quality of living standard survey worldwide. The state welfare system, access to quality education and wage equality characterise the Nordic model and contribute to the countries' continued growth and prosperity. But they also face challenges due to ageing populations, increasing inequality and digitalisation. What are the lessons to be learned from the Nordic countries? How can the Nordic model help shape future economic policy in Europe? How will the Nordic countries confront the challenges to their system? This Forum examines various angles and provides relevant applications for the future.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Re-thinking FATF: an experimentalist interpretation of the Financial Action Task Force

  Crime Law and Social Change · 2017-12-18 · 49 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Most explanations of the Financial Action Task Force argue that material coercion plays a key role in the consolidation and diffusion of the global anti-money laundering regime. This paper looks carefully at the decision-making within FATF and argues that, at its most impactful, FATF operates in line with the principles of “experimentalist governance.” Experimentalism emphasizes broad, participatory standard setting, contextualized implementation, intensive but diagnostic monitoring, and routinized updating in light of experience. The paper discusses the differences between the more common understandings of FATF before laying out the principles of experimentalist governance. It outlines the experimentalist form of FATF decision-making. It then provides evidence of experimentalist decision-making in three important aspects of FATF: the evolution of blacklisting; the role of monitoring; and the continuing implementation of the risk-based approach.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Conflict, cooperation, and change in the politics of energy interdependence: An introduction

  Energy Research & Social Science · 2017-01-10 · 27 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The regime that FATF built: an introduction to the Financial Action Task Force

  Crime Law and Social Change · 2017-12-11 · 63 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article serves to introduce this special issue of Crime, Law, & Social Change on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It provides a primer on the history and purpose of FATF and lays out some of the central debates over FATF and the anti-money laundering (AML) regime. Finally, as a way of giving readers an overview of the articles in the special issue, it proposes a series of themes that academics and practitioners should consider in future research and work with FATF.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Global governance at the energy-security nexus: Lessons from UNSCR 1540

  Energy Research & Social Science · 2017-01-05 · 7 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jonathan Perraton

  University of Sheffield

  36 shared

• Elise S. Brezis

  36 shared

• Roberto Iacono

  36 shared

• Gabriele Suder

  12 shared

• Daniel H. Levine

  10 shared

• Kenneth H. Mayer

  Fenway Health

  9 shared

• Michelle C. Pautz

  9 shared

• Gerhard Loewenberg

  9 shared

Labs

• Research and EngagementPI

Awards & honors

• Fulbright Scholar