Title: Bad neighbor policy : Washington's futile war on drugs in Latin America /
Authors: Carpenter, Ted Galen
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2003
Subjects: Drug abuse United States; Drug traffic United States; Drug traffic Latin America; Drug control United States; Latin America Foreign relations United States.; United States Foreign relations Latin America.
Abstract: Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) Counter The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.
Contents: Thirty years of failure -- Forging the Bad Neighbor policy : the drug war from Nixon to Reagan -- Escalating and militarizing the drug war : the Bush and Clinton years -- Plan Colombia : a dangerous new phase in the drug war -- A mix of flawed strategies -- Washington's "ugly American" tactics -- Reaping the whirlwind : consequences to Latin American societies -- Mexico : the next Colombia? -- Polluting the republic : the drug war at home -- A blueprint for peace : ending the war on drugs.