Implementing Us Anti-Drug Policy In The Andes: A Comparative Study Of Bolivia, Peru And Colombia

Promoted during the 1980s and 1990s as a national security imperative, the US anti-drug policy in the Andes embraced a false center of gravity in the form of a supply side focus on narcotrafficker cocaine production, refining and transshipment operations in the source countries of Bolivia, Columbia and Peru. Although the policy in its implementation was able to achieve numerous tactical successes, it was in the end a strategic failure. Economic, social and political factors and actors cascaded together in an interdependent manner to sometimes propel the policy forward, but more often than not acted in a countervailing manner to neutralize the policy\u27s outcome. As a result, the US anti-drug policy in the Andes was ineffective in terms of stopping or even diminishing the flow of drugs into the US