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Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs
Brookings Institution Press
November 2009
On Sale: November 1, 2009
273 pages
ISBN: 0815703287
EAN: 9780815703280
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
"Shooting Up" analyzes how involvement in the production and
trafficking of illicit commodities, especially drugs,
affects the strength of belligerents and governments. Much
of U.S. anti-narcotics policy abroad is based on the
assumption of symbiotic relationships between drug
producers, traffickers, insurgents, and terrorists; thus,
policy is organized around the premise that the suppression
of drug production will service both anti-drug and
counterterrorist goals. The author challenges this
narcoguerrilla premise of U.S. policy. She shows that, far
from being complementary, anti-narcotics and
counterinsurgency policies are frequently at odds with one
another. Given that warlords, terrorists, and insurgents
gain vast financial resources from the illicit drug economy,
U.S. policymakers rely heavily on crop eradication as a way
to end the military conflict in a particular country.
Eradication, however, often fails to significantly diminish
the physical capabilities of the belligerents
and-counterproductively-enhances their legitimacy. She
demonstrates that success in suppressing illicit economies,
such as drugs, cannot be achieved without first addressing
the security situation in the country. The book provides
hard-hitting recommendations for reformulating this
dimension of U.S. national security policy and for optimal
sequencing of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and
counternarcotics policies. Likewise, it points the way for
other governments to deal effectively with the nexus between
military conflict and illicit economies. The book contains
specific case studies of Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan,
Myanmar, and Northern Ireland.
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