Narcotics as a Growing Security Concern

Author(s): Prem Mahadevan
Editor(s): Daniel Möckli
Series Editor(s): Andreas Wenger, Victor Mauer
Book Title: Strategic Trends 2011: Key Developments in Global Affairs
Series: Strategic Trends
Pages: 89-107
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Place: Zurich

The global narcotics trade is gradually becoming an international security threat. The drug-financed Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and drug-related violence in Mexico are examples. Efforts to combat the problem aggressively in either source or transit countries have only worsened it. Meanwhile, terrorists are showing signs of cooperating with drug traffickers, due to a convergence of interests and methods. Unless the narcotics-insecurity cycle is met with greater counternarcotics coordination, it may spread even further.

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