The Marshall Center’s Program on Countering Transnational Organized Crime - International Forum (CTOC-IF) is a unique global forum that brings together senior government policymakers, law enforcement and security professionals, prosecutors, and other practitioners from around the world to exchange information and discuss current and emerging trends in challenges and threats posed by transnational criminal organizations. The forum builds cross-border and cross-regional relationships to counter TOC challenges and threats. Each year the CTOC-IF builds on previous years’ findings and recommendations by assessing the evolving nature of TOC and its use of corruption and other methods for undermining national and international security and promoting the sense of impunity of organized criminal groups. The forum has been updated over the years by adding special attention to analyzing the interplay among geopolitics, strategic competition, and TOC activities and the challenges TOC poses to global security, with an increasing emphasis on their involvement in irregular warfare and hybrid threat activities. Participants explore the impact of TOC challenges and threats on national and international security and stability and examine the effects of TOC on governance, civil society, and social stability. By evaluating geopolitical factors, regime types, illicit markets, and TOC activities using international financial and trade mechanisms, the CTOC-IF provides a venue for analysis of TOC's complex dynamics and enables senior-level participants to develop effective strategies, policies, and programs to counter illicit TOC activities and influence.

• Provide a forum for senior CTOC government policymakers, practitioners, and other experts from around the world to learn about and discuss current and emerging trends in challenges and threats posed by transnational criminal organizations.
• Provide an update on TOC threats and challenges within the context of the increasingly complex geopolitical arena, including strategic competition among major world powers and attendant changing regional and national alliances to inform the development of effective CTOC strategies and policies.
• Increase awareness of the current, emerging, and future threats and risks posed by TOC and the destructive impact of TOC threats on national and international security and stability, including factors such as effective democratic governance, civil society, social stability, economic viability, and the possibility of state capture.
• Update participants on methods and frameworks for assessing and strengthening capabilities in CTOC strategies, policies, and operations in order to understand, identify, deter, and counter TOC challenges and threats and build societal resilience to those challenges and threats.
• Enable the sharing of emerging best practices for strategies and policies, whole-of-government approaches, public-private collaboration, information sharing, and international cooperation to develop and implement comprehensive CTOC approaches.
• Facilitate participants building a professional network of senior CTOC policy makers, practitioners, and researchers from around the world to support their efforts to strengthen CTOC activities nationally, regionally, and internationally.
• Increase senior-level understanding of and encourage support for participation of personnel from their countries and organizations in the Marshall Center CTOC course and other Marshall Center activities. 

The CTOC-IF is an annual intensive three-day forum focused at the strategic level for senior-level policymakers, practitioners, and other experts, including government officials at the minister level and flag officer level, who are engaged in activities to mitigate and combat the regional and transnational threats posed by TOC. The forum aims to enable the exchange of information and discussion of current and emerging trends in TOC challenges and threats and build cross-border and cross-regional relationships to counter TOC challenges and threats. The CTOC-IF was most recently held in Rome, Italy, and, in the future, will usually be held in a European capital city to facilitate the ease of access and participation by senior-level leaders from around the world and to take advantage of participation by members of organizations with CTOC-related interests based in or near the capital city. The CTOC-IF is a mixture of lectures and panel sessions delivered by subject matter experts and includes opportunities for building relationships and team cohesion. Each forum builds on the outcomes of previous iterations of the event, assessing the evolving nature of TOC and shedding light on the geopolitical undercurrents and driving forces behind them. After the three-day forum, participants have a better understanding of existing and emerging TOC trends, challenges, and threats, as well as mitigating measures for those threats. A demonstrated understanding of whole-of-government/whole-of-society approaches to CTOC vis-à-vis an improved international and transnational network and shared ideas and best practices is a key forum outcome allowing senior leaders to develop a comprehensive understanding of the problems TOC poses, formulate strategies against the illicit networks, and reinforce our collective resolve and strategic approach to counter these global challenges.