Suchergebnisse

Introduction -- The global trade -- The history of the war on drugs -- Commonly trafficked drugs -- The routes of drug trafficking -- Drug dealing in the 21st century -- Efforts to end drug trafficking -- Notes -- For more information -- Index -- Picture credits -- About the author

Discusses the international drug trade, role of organized crime, and public policy for drug control; some focus on corruption, and balance of power between public institutions and drug trafficking networks; China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Southern Africa, chiefly; 16 articles. Some articles translated from French or Spanish.

It has been almost four years since the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan (an interim government was formed in June 2002) and the country began building a new state with direct assistance from the international antiterrorist coalition. This gave the world community reason to hope that the new authorities, albeit not immediately, would be able to stem the flow of heroin pouring out of the country. After all, in the 1990s it became the leading opium drug producer in the world. Later, when the Taliban came to power, the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse.

GIVEN THAT THE U.S. HAS BEEN THE LEADING MAJOR POWER ADVOCATING MILITARY-STYLE SOLUTIONS TO THE ILLICIT DRUGS SUPPLY PROBLEM, AN IMPORTANT SHIFT OF STANCE HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. THE TRIP BY PRESIDENT BUSH IN FEBRUARY 1990 TO CARTAGENA WENT FAR BEYOND A DIPLOMATIC GESTURE. IT IMPLIED AN ACCEPTANCE OF EQUALITY AND THE RECOGNITION THAT THE PROBLEM OF DRUG TRAFFICKING IS TOO SERIOUS AND TOO COMPLEX TO BE SOLVED BY BRANDING THE PRODUCING COUNTRIES AS VILLAINS AND BY DYNAMITING GUERILLA HEADQUARTERS OR COCO PLANTATIONS. DOMESTICALLY, THE NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY RECOGNIZED THE COMPLEXITY OF THE DRUG PROBLEM IN THE U.S. AND HENCE THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SEARCHING FOR SIMPLISITIC SOLUTIONS LIKE `CALL OUT THE TROOPS'.

In this article we seek to highlight two generic patterns of state delinquency connected to drug trafficking: on the one hand, corruption through the neutralisation of the state's power, when the initiative is in the hands of drug traffickers, and, on the other, corruption through abuse of power when the initiative lies with civil servants. The studies presented in this chapter suggest, indeed, that the predominance of one or the other form of corruption is greatly dependent upon the history of the state and the balance of power between public institutions and drug trafficking networks. For example, the case of Mexico, where the various administrations remained for a long time under the de facto tutelage of a single party, may bear a greater similarity in this respect to the case of China than to that of Brazil, India, or Colombia. Beyond the differences, and regardless of the extent to which traffickers are independent of the power of the state, we raise the political question of clientelism.