Shooting Up Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs

Many policymakers see counterinsurgency and counternarcotics policy as two sides of the same coin. Stop the flow of drug money, the logic goes, and the insurgency will wither away. But the conventional wisdom is dangerously wrongheaded, as Vanda Felbab-Brown shows in this compelling and timely book.

Counternarcotics campaigns, particularly those focused on eradication, typically fail to bankrupt belligerent groups that rely on the drug trade for financing. Worse, they actually strengthen insurgents by increasing their legitimacy and popular support.

Felbab-Brown draws on interviews and fieldwork in some of the world's most dangerous regions to explain how belligerent groups have become involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities, including kidnapping, extortion, and smuggling. She shows vividly how powerful guerrilla and terrorist organizations -- such as Peru's Shining Path, the FARC in Colombia, and the Taliban in Afghanistan -- have learned to exploit illicit markets. Felbab-Brown also explores the interaction between insurgent groups and illicit economies in frequently overlooked settings, including Northern Ireland, Turkey, and Burma.

Aggressive efforts to suppress the drug trade typically backfire by allowing insurgents to pose as the population's protectors and win further legitimacy. In contrast, a laissez-faire policy toward illicit crop cultivation can reduce support for the belligerents and, critically, increase cooperation with government intelligence-gathering. When combined with interdiction targeted at major traffickers, this strategy gives policymakers a better chance of winning both the war against the insurgents and the war on drugs.