Drugs and Foreign Policy: A Critical Review

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.