Cocaine industry - Government policy - United States -- Heroin industry - Government policy - United States

Indeks : p.223-230 ; p.204-222 ; This book explores how US foreign policy has exacerbated the global drug problem. It analyses a crucial side effect of coercive US strategies on farmers, traffickers and governments: the geographic displacement of the cocaine and heroin industry. This volume thus offers an original explanation of the adaptability of drug markets to state pressure. Using IR theory, the book highlights the negative consequences of policies that rely on coercion. To explain displacement, a causal mechanism is developed and applied to three cases. These case studies examine US anti-drug regimes at different times and in various regions: the destruction of the French Connection in the 1970s and its impact on Southeast Asia and Mexico; the shooting-down of suspected trafficking planes over Peru in the 1990s; and the current US-sponsored war in Colombia. While the link between foreign policy and displacement should not be oversimplified, the author argues that US initiatives have been a major cause behind the global spread of cocaine and heroin. He thus calls for a revision of US policy. The book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, security studies and International Relations.