Evaluation of the United States drug war policy abroad: a case study in Colombia
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Authors
Wright, Kevin T.
Hamilton, Joseph S.
Subjects
Drug War
Colombia
Monroe Doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary
Cocaine
Foreign Aid
Drug Policy
Colombia
Monroe Doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary
Cocaine
Foreign Aid
Drug Policy
Advisors
Henderson, David R.
Enns, John
Date of Issue
2010-12
Date
December 2010
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
As the United States continues to recover from the greatest recession since the Great Depression, the U.S. government must find cost savings. Therefore, this project aimed to find efficiencies through reallocating funds from a program proven ineffective. U.S. foreign aid programs such as Plan Colombia, in conjunction with Colombian President Uribe's "Democratic Security" strategy, caused a significant drop in murder rates, the number of displaced people, and the number of kidnappings in Colombia over the last ten years. The purpose of beginning the drug war in Colombia was to interdict the drugs at the source. However, as a result of the "balloon effect" into Peru and Bolivia and technological advances by the narco-traffickers, the net result of interdiction has been virtually zero. Additionally, the source of the United States' drug problem is not in Colombia, but with the user and his or her demand for illicit drugs. Therefore, this project recommends aligning funding to support rehabilitation and prevention programs that will reduce the likelihood that a person will have the desire to abuse drugs again. Though there are possibly negative short-term effects of this policy, this project shows that the long-term effect favors rehabilitation and prevention.
Type
Description
MBA Professional Report
Series/Report No
Department
Business Administration
Organization
Department of Defense Management (DDM)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
xiv, 65 p. : ill. (1 col. map) ; 28 cm.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.