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List of contents
Preface -- The Global Drug Phenomenon: Lessons from History and Future Challenges -- U.S. Narcotics Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century: An Analytical Overview -- U.S. Foreign Policy and International Narcotics Control: Challenges and Opportunities in the 1990s and Beyond -- International Drug Policy and the U.S. Congress -- The Role of Law Enforcement -- The Role of the Military -- The Role of Economic Development: Policy Options for Increased Peasant Participation in Peru and Bolivia -- World-Wide and Regional Anti-Drug Programs -- Drugs in Post-Communist Societies -- The Limits and Consequences of U.S. Foreign Drug Control Efforts
Summary
Controlling illegal trafficking in narcotics is a complex challenge. Dilemmas for policymakers abound. Despite new measures adopted by the international community that have led to tactical victories, the flow of illicit drugs into the United States continues largely unabated, and worldwide production of opium, marijuana, and coca continues to grow dramatically. In this timely work, specialists from government, academia, and the private sector debate recent U.S. foreign drug policy—its origins, its elements, its implementation, and its prospects for success. Serious conflicts between U.S. international narcotics policy and U.S. foreign policy contribute to the dilemmas inherent in curbing global drug trafficking: Interdicting drugs interrupts the free flow of goods, people, and wealth across international borders. International political and economic instabilities, especially political breakups and ethnic strife in former police states, complicate U.S. foreign drug policy. Because U.S. antidrug goals can bring political disruption and economic loss to countries where narcotics production is economically and socially entrenched, the United States must cooperate with an international antinarcotics coalition of producer, transit, and consumer nations, operating within the context of their perspectives and priorities while trying to achieve competing U.S. foreign policy goals.
