Transforming the War on Drugs: Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions

"This book asks how the international community can tackle the complex causes and consequences that the War on Drugs is intended to address. This question arises against the backdrop of the War on Drugs' failure to significantly reduce the scale or impact of illicit drug production and trafficking as well as the lack of consensus on the way forward in the international policy debate. Challenging conventional defense- and security-sector thinking, this book constitutes the first comprehensive, systematic effort to theoretically, conceptually, and empirically investigate the effects of the international drug control regime's interpretation as War on Drugs. The volume unpacks the dynamics behind illicit drug markets, the fluid motivations of 'warriors', and the evolving consequences for 'victims' of this war--the lines between warriors and victims often being blurred. The contributors trace the regime's interpretation as War on Drugs across vulnerable regions including South and Central America, West Africa, the Middle East and the Golden Crescent, the Golden Triangle, and Russia. They demonstrate that consequences are 'glocal,' the repercussions of transnational illicit flows being interdependent with the War's local impacts on human rights, security, development, and public health. The book further reveals how the War has influenced government positions across these regions, with significant ramifications for the international drug control regime. At a time when global order is in flux and global security at risk, critically evaluating the regime's securitization through the War on Drugs provides key insights into other global governance realms"