Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs

Most policymakers see counterinsurgency and counternarcotic policy as two sides of the same coin. Stop the flow of drug *, the logic goes, and the insurgency will wither away. But the conventional wisdom is dangerously wrongheaded, as Vanda Felbab-Brown argues in Shooting Up. Counternarcotic 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.