“Reputation laundering remains a seriously under researched area of state crime denial. Dilmira Matyakubova, in her excoriating and powerful corrective, uncovers the veil behind which kleptocratic states employ a myriad of creative techniques to obscure, ameliorate and deny their crimes. But perhaps more importantly this book brilliantly exposes the ways in which reputation laundering requires not only the criminal state’s strategies of denial and cover-up but the enabling endorsement of ‘respectable’ international financial institutions. As the book makes vividly clear state crime and its denial is never solely the province of the state whose reputation requires laundering – it is endemic to the capitalist project itself.”Penny Green, FAcSS, Professor of Law and Globalisation, Director of the International State Crime Initiative at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London “An incisive and rigorous study, this book reveals how modern kleptocratic states use reputation laundering to engineer legitimacy. Matyakubova presents a bold and original inter-disciplinary study, which fuses Bourdieusian sociology with the state crime framework, and produces a study of real empirical depth on elite complicity and ceremonial power. The result is essential reading for scholars of state crime, authoritarianism, and international relations.”Shane Mac Giollabhui, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Ulster“This monograph advances a theoretically grounded, empirically rich analysis of reputation laundering for states. Integrating state crime scholarship with Bourdieusian theory, it also develops an original conceptual framework for understanding state-led reputation laundering. The timely and important case study of post-Soviet Uzbekistan makes it essential reading for scholars of criminology, law and international relations, and for anyone interested in how states find innovative ways to launder reputations and maintain an image of legitimacy.”Thomas MacManus, Senior Lecturer in State Crime and Acting Director at the International State Crime Initiative at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London
