A War that Can’t Be Won

Binational Perspectives on the War on Drugs

Edited by Tony Payan, Kathleen Staudt, and Z. Anthony Kruszewski

The University of Arizona Press

More than forty years have passed since President Richard Nixon described illegal drugs as “public enemy number one” and declared a “War on Drugs.” Recently the United Nations Global Commission on Drug Policy declared that “the global war on drugs has failed with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” Arguably, no other country has suffered as much from the War on Drugs as Mexico. From 2006 to 2012 alone, at least sixty thousand people have died. Some experts have said that the actual number is more than one hundred thousand. Because the war was conceived and structured by US policymakers and officials, many commentators believe that the United States is deeply implicated in the bloodshed.

A War that Can’t Be Won is the first book to include contributions from scholars on both sides of the US–Mexico border. It provides a unique breadth of perspective on the many dimensions of the societal crisis that affects residents of both nations—particularly those who live and work in the borderlands. It also proposes practical steps toward solving a crisis that shows no signs of abating under current policies. Each chapter is based on well-documented data, including previously unavailable evidence that was obtained through freedom-of-information inquiries in Mexico. By bringing together views from both sides of the border, as well as from various academic disciplines, this volume offers a much wider view of a complex problem—and possible solutions.

Some of the best US and Mexican border scholars sit down and apply what they know about the transborder relationship as it relates to narco-trafficking in and from Mexico. They ask what can be done and realize the war, as conceived, cannot be won. A worthy read for all interested in the topic.’—D. Rick Van Schoik, director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University

A diverse set of essays that touch on many aspects of 'America's longest war,' the war on drugs. . . . The essays cover a hot button topic at a time when the drug policies in the Americas are being reassessed.'—CHOICE Reviews

Tony Payan is an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is the author of Cops, Soldiers, and Diplomats: Understanding Agency Behavior in the War on Drugs and The Three US-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security. He is also a past president of the Association for Borderlands Studies. Kathleen Staudt is professor of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she founded and directed the Center for Civic Engagement. She is the author of seventeen books, including Violence and Activism at the Border: Gender, Fear, and Everyday Life in Ciudad Juárez.Z. Anthony Kruszewski is a professor of political science at the University of Texas at El Paso. One of the original founders of the Association for Borderlands Studies, he is the co-editor, with Payan and Staudt, of Human Rights along the US-Mexico Border: Gendered Violence and Insecurity.

Part I, Framing the Issues

Chapter 1: The Many Labyrinths of Illegal Drug Policy: Framing the Issues
Tony Payan

Chapter 2: Cartels, Corruption, Carnage and Cooperation
William C. Martin

Chapter 3: President Felipe Calderón's Strategy to Combat Organized Crime
Marcos Pablo Moloeznik

Part II, Current Strategies and Casualties

Chapter 4: Drug Wars, Social Networks, and the Right to Information: Informal Media as Freedom of Press in Northern Mexico
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and José Nava

Chapter 5: Political Protection and the Origins of the Gulf Cartel
Carlos Antonio Flores Pérez

Chapter 6: Organized Crime as the Highest Threat to Mexican National Security and Democracy
Raúl Benítez Manaut

Chapter 7: A Federalist George W. Bush and an Anti-Federalist Barack Obama? The Irony and Paradoxes behind Republican and Democratic Administration Drug Policies
José D. Villalobos

Chapter 8: Caught in the Middle: Undocumented Migrants' Experiences with Drug Violence
Jeremy Slack and Scott Whiteford

Part III, Ending the War: Alternative Strategies

Chapter 9: Challenging Foreign Policy from the Border: The Forty-Year War on Drugs
Kathleen Staudt and Beto O'Rourke

Chapter 10: The Role of Citizens and Civil Society in Mexico's Security Crisis
Daniel M. Sabet

Chapter 11: Regulating Drugs as a Crime: A Challenge for the Social Sciences
Israel Alvarado Martínez and Germán Guillén López

Chapter 12: The U.S. Causes but Cannot (or Will Not) Solve Mexico's Drug Problems
Jonathan P. Caulkins and Eric L. Sevigny

Part IV, Closing Perspectives

Chapter 13: Conclusions: A War That Can't Be Won?
Tony Payan and Kathleen Staudt

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