Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Different Wars Require Different Strategies: Separating The “War On Drugs” From The “War On Drug [Traffickers]”, Liana Eustacia Reyes

Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy - Student Research

Using the securitization framework to highlight the arguments that facilitated the “War on Drugs”, this paper highlights a separate war against drug traffickers. Facilitated by ideology through the rhetoric promoted by the “War on Drugs,” the fear of communist expansion and democratic contraction, the “War on Drug Traffickers” was implemented, requiring its own strategy separate from the “War on Drugs.” This is an important distinction because the play on words changes the perception of the issue from one of drug addiction to one of weak institutions and insurgent/terrorist threat to those institutions. Furthermore, one cannot propose strategy to win, lose, …