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Provides the first regulatory history of UN drug control and examines its enabling role in the modern 'war on drugs'.
List of contents
1. Drug diplomacy from the Opium Wars through the League of Nations, 1839-1939; 2. International drug control in wartime, 1939-1945; 3. Creating the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, 1945-1946; 4. Reconstructing drug control in Europe, Asia and the Middle East; 5. Old battles anew at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, 1946-1948; 6. Dividing up the global licit market, 1948-1953; 7. From the 1953 protocol to the 1961 single convention; 8. Assessing the legal legacy of the single convention.
About the author
John Collins is Director of Academic Engagement, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, Vienna. He is also a Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, and Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development, LSE Press. John's contemporary policy interests focus on the political economy of international drug control and the evolving dynamics on national and international policy reforms.
Summary
The book is targeted at international history, drug policy, international relations and international law specialists. It provides the first focused, systematic historical account of the creation of the UN drug control system, the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the first major regulatory history of UN drug control.
Additional text
'This book is a timely and important history of an issue of immense global importance. For countries that feel like they have been cycling a stationary bike for many decades fighting the “war on drugs” it is important to go back and look to the origins of the current set of policies in order to understand how they can be changed. This book provides key insights and explanations for policy choices that we now take for granted but should be viewed through a new lens of science and policy pragmatism.' Juan Manuel Santos, Former President of Colombia, Nobel Prize Laureate and Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
