Cocaine Trafficking in Latin America

EU and US Policy Responses

Sayaka Fukumi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754670438
• eBook ISBN: 9781317164883
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The post-Cold War world has seen the emergence of new kinds of security threats. Whilst traditionally security threats were perceived of in terms of military threats against a state, non-traditional security threats are those that pose a threat to various internal competencies of the state and its identity both home and abroad. The European Union and the United States have identified Latin American cocaine trafficking as a security threat, but their policy responses to it have differed. This book examines the ways in which the EU and the US have conceptualized this threat. Furthermore, it explores the impact of cocaine trafficking on four state functions - economic, political, public order and diplomatic - in order to explain why it has become 'securitized'. Appealing to a variety of university courses, this book is especially relevant to security studies and European and US policy analysis, as well as criminology and sociology.

Chapter 1 Securitisation and Drug Control Policy: Theoretical Frameworks

DOI: 10.4324/9781315572482-2

Introduction

This chapter will examine the conceptualisation of security and threat. It will also look at the influence of the drug prohibition regime on state policy in order to analyse the link between recognising and understanding a phenomenon and policy making around it. The notion of transnational organised crime as a security threat is a relatively new concept in the field of security studies. States are traditionally believed to respond to security threats by military means. Since the end of the Cold War, however, new threats have emerged, which require a broader range of responses. State responses to transnational organised crime vary. Through the investigation of theories related to security and policy making, this chapter will attempt to provide a framework to analyse why the United States and the European Union are pursuing drug control in the Andes in such different manners.

The chapter will be divided into three sections to provide a framework for analysis: firstly, the concept of security and the ‘securitisation’ of a phenomenon will be investigated. Through this section, the difference between traditional security threats and non-traditional security threats will be illustrated. Also the way in which states conceptualise a security threat from a phenomenon will be analysed. Secondly, the implication of transnational organised crime as a non-traditional security threat and state policy on drug control will be investigated. Since drugs only have an indirect impact on state existence, unlike invasion by other states, the impact of a non-traditional security threat needs to be analysed from a different angle from that of a traditional security threat. This section will focus on four state functions to analyse the threat posed to the state by transnational organised crime. These four functions are related to economic, political, public order and diplomatic relations. Drug trafficking organisations may affect economic activities through their financial power, and this financial power may enable them to corrupt government officials in order to ensure their activities are not interdicted. The development of drug markets can lead to competition among drug traffickers. Such competition tends to result in violent disputes. In order to look at public order and community safety, violence related to drug trafficking will be examined as well as infectious diseases spread through the unhygienic use of drugs. Then, international pressures on a state to control drugs and limitations on their sovereignty stemming from international drug prohibition will be examined. Compliance with international rules and peer pressures would affect state decision making on drug related issues. Following the analysis on the threat posed by a non-traditional security threat, this chapter will discuss international influences on the policy making of an actor. In addition to the understanding of drug control, actors might take some other issues in international relations into consideration. The motivation for drug related policy making in the international community will be analysed from the perspective of national interests (Realist perspective) and social identity and of moral values (Social Constructivist perspectives).

Security Threat and ‘Securitisation’

A new set of arguments that emerged from the collapse of the communist bloc was those related to the concepts of security and ‘enemies’. As communism as a threat disappeared from political and security spheres, there have been movements to include unconventional issues into the security sphere, such as the environment, organised crime, and migration.¹ The non-traditional security threats that came to attention in the post-1989 era were not considered as security issues under the pre-1989 definition of security. The rapid progress of globalisation, however, raised alarm about the potential threat posed by transnational phenomena and increased the need to reconceptualise security, as Wæver advocates, to embrace broader issues as security concerns.² This section will examine the concept of security from both Realist and Social Constructivist perspectives. These may offer explanations of how states recognise threats from other phenomena.

According to Desch, Realism provides a model for studying security in which states are concerned with state survival in an anarchic world.³ This is because the state is the actor in international relations, and in order to be recognised as a state, it is necessary to possess territories and sovereignty to control the territories. States are also required to protect citizens to ensure their safety. Since states are struggling for power, according to the Realist perspective,⁴ they may attempt to obtain more power through material gain, such as more land or resources. Security, therefore, is closely related to the physical damage to a state and state survival based on the sustainability of its territories. The principal security threats are war and invasion by other states.⁵ Strange argues that for a state, territories and resources are directly related to state strength, which is perceived as power.⁶ In this sense, state interest is to obtain power, and to maintain its power – power is the goal for national interests. In order to maintain its territory and to ensure survival in the anarchic world, states can ally with those who share the same interests to preserve their status quo through the mechanism known as ‘balance of power’.⁷ Balance of power has functioned as a mechanism to prevent ‘cheating’ from allied states and to ensure maintenance of the relationships through complex connections between and among states inside the mechanism.

Neo-Realists differ from Realists in seeing the structure of the international system as the principal determinant of state action.⁸ The concept of balance of power was taken further to develop the concept of the international system. Gilpin studied the world equilibrium during the Cold War and describes it as a bipolar system between the Soviet Union and the United States, unlike the traditional Realist concept requiring several states to keep the balance.⁹ The changes within the international system can be analysed through mutual interaction between and among three levels – international, state and individual – following the change in the distribution of power in the international system.¹⁰ In respect to the concept of power, neo-Realists, such as Waltz, argue that state power is a means to pursue an influential position in the international system, and hence not necessarily military force but also the combination of economic and political resources.¹¹ In other words, power consists of several elements rather than a simple military factor.

Both Realists and neo-Realists conceptualise security in terms of the survival of states in an anarchic world through a struggle for power, and threats to national security emerge from another state’s desires to expand its power through obtaining more resources available outside its own territories.¹² This is because what matters to a state is its relative power, that it is stronger than other states in the system. In short, from the Realist and the neo-Realist points of view, threats to a state are mostly posed by state(s), and what is at stake is material: a national security threat for a state is another state’s desire to increase its power by obtaining more territories and other resources. In order to ensure security, states seek alliances. States, however, ally (co-operate) only when the alliance (co-operation) is advantageous to their national interests and relative gain.

The end of the Cold War, however, has brought an expansion of the interpretation of security and referent objects. During the 1980s, there was a movement to expand the security agenda from the security of a state to the security of people ‘either as individuals or as a global or international collectivity’ – an approach known as critical security studies.¹³ For example, Booth and Strange, from their Liberal perspectives, eschew the state as the focal point for the analysis of security, arguing instead for a people-centred view, which is related to freeing humans through emancipation and preventing individual insecurity such as unemployment.¹⁴ From the perspective of ‘human security’, the life and quality of life of individuals should be the central concern (the referent object) for security and the goal should be the sustainability and improvement of quality life.

The meaning of national security also departed from classic Realist views, and is more concerned about the governance of the state, for instance, the governing regime and state structure as a security concern. Ayoob and Ball consider that the state is the referent object for security analysis, although the concern is not the land but the security of the existing governing body and state structure, particularly for developing states.¹⁵ Ayoob maintains the internal and external ‘vulnerabilities’ that have potential to, or threaten to, weaken state structures and governing regimes.¹⁶ For example, weak economic and political structures of developing states facing continuous challenge by guerrilla groups could be weakened further by international interference, such as economic sanctions. Another sub-state referent object for security concern is discussed by Buzan who argues that sectoral security should be included – such as societal security,¹⁷ that is, the sustainability of a society. A societal security threat is a threat to affect traditional moral values and culture in a society. It could lead to a collapse of trust among a community due to differences in morals and disciplines among the society members. According to this new term, non-traditional security threats, such as drugs, may harm society through undermining and discrediting morals and values.¹⁸ These arguments indicate that national security can encompass internal aspects of a state rather...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Table Of Contents
• Cocaine Trafficking in Latin America
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Securitisation and Drug Control Policy: Theoretical Frameworks
• 2 The ‘Securitisation’ of Cocaine Trafficking in the European Union
• 3 The ‘Securitisation’ of Cocaine Trafficking in the United States
• 4 EU Drug Control Policy Towards the Andes
• 5 US Drug Control Policy Towards the Andes
• 6 Plan Colombia: An Attempt at Multinational Co-operation
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Appendix: List of Interviewees
• Index