Special Issue: South American Perspectives on Peace Operations
International Peacekeeping, 2010
Help: about the FAC B Database The Food Additives and Contaminants - Surveillance Database is a s... more Help: about the FAC B Database The Food Additives and Contaminants - Surveillance Database is a searchable database containing all the surveillance data published in Food Additives and Contaminants Part B (FAC B) since its launch in June 2008. Search results may be ...
Page 1. Venezuela: Degenerative Democracy JULIA BUXTON Following a ... redistribution. The Electo... more Page 1. Venezuela: Degenerative Democracy JULIA BUXTON Following a ... redistribution. The Electoral System The control of the party elite, the cogollo, was further enhanced by the electoral system approved in 1958. Despite ...
Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control r... more Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control regime has had an historical emphasis in on ‘narcotic’ drugs, such as opium, heroin and cocaine, rather than on a range of synthetic substances.• Associated policy inertia has resulted in disproportionate attention on counter-narcotic policies and operations in the Global South and in many ways inadequate responses to the synthetic market, including production that is frequently located in the Global North.• Possible explanations for this focus on plant-based drugs are manifold and complex. They include the fact that the control regime began with concerns over opium-smoking in the ‘orient’, a concentration of drug crops in the Global South, the energies of colonialism (which have been intimately tied up with ‘drug wars’), broader geo-political imperatives and the focus of policy metrics on drug crops.• The market for synthetic drugs has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming the se...
As member states of the United Nations take stock of the drug control system, a number of debates... more As member states of the United Nations take stock of the drug control system, a number of debates have emerged among governments about how to balance international drug laws with human rights, public health, alternatives to incarceration, and experimentation with regulation. This series intends to provide a primer on why governments must not turn a blind eye to pressing human rights and public health impacts of current drug policies. The cultivation of drug crops such as opium poppy, coca, and cannabis is a vital source of economic and physical security for poor, marginalized, and vulnerable communities in the Global South. International drug control strategies that have targeted cultivators with violent state coercion and eradication strategies have fueled displacement, ecological damage, and land poverty, while exacerbating existing problems of malnutrition and infectious disease. Such approaches have proved particularly counterproductive in conflict contexts, where an assumed nex...
Are Barriers to Sustainable Development Endogenous to Drug Control Policies?
Revue internationale de politique de développement
This introductory article explains the rationale behind the 12th Thematic Issue of International ... more This introductory article explains the rationale behind the 12th Thematic Issue of International Development Policy, which explores the tension between development and drug control goals, both current and historic. The volume of fifteen articles draws on a broad spectrum of thematic issues to address the following key questions: Are prohibition and development mutually exclusive or complementary international agendas? How do the harms associated with drug policy enforcement undermine development prospects? The diverse group of authors highlight the corrosive effects of criminalisation and prohibition - based approaches on the livelihoods and fundamental rights of those who are vulnerable, including women, children, people who count on drug cultivation and trafficking to make a living, and people who use drugs. They also address the limitations and feasibility of development - focused interventions in drug control strategies within the context of the prohibition paradigm.
Contrôle des drogues et développement : un angle mort des politiques internationales
Revue internationale de politique de développement
La question du developpement a ete au centre de la politique anti-drogue internationale depuis le... more La question du developpement a ete au centre de la politique anti-drogue internationale depuis les premiers pas timides du regime de controle mondial des stupefiants, il y a plus d’un siecle. Mais la strategie concue pour limiter la culture des plantes psychotropes a impose un cout disproportionne aux territoires du Sud. Ce fardeau s’est alourdi dans l’apres-guerre et lorsque la Convention unique sur les stupefiants de 1961 et la « guerre contre la drogue » lancee par les Etats-Unis dans les annees 1970 ont institutionnalise les stupefiants comme un enjeu de securite et une preoccupation policiere. En depit de la penalisation et des efforts d’eradication coercitifs menes par les Etats, la culture illicite de plantes narcotiques (pavot a opium et coca) a persiste et elle a meme atteint des niveaux records a partir de 2015. De fait, la perception du role moteur joue par des deficits de developpement dans la culture illicite durable s’est amelioree ces dernieres decennies. Neanmoins, des efforts importants visant a renforcer les liens interinstitutionnels et thematiques entre la strategie anti-drogue et les objectifs de developpement ont entraine une reinvention des approches orthodoxes du controle de la drogue comme de la reduction de la pauvrete. Aucune de ces approches n’a toutefois connu de succes durable ou n’a souleve de preoccupations quant aux effets contre-productifs de la reproduction de telles politiques. En rassemblant de nouvelles idees au sein de paradigmes defaillants, le developpement alternatif se comprend mieux comme un « bricolage politique ».
National Identity and Political Violence: The Case of Venezuela
Political Violence and the Construction of National Identity in Latin America
Venezuela is not a country that is typically associated with political violence. The upheavals en... more Venezuela is not a country that is typically associated with political violence. The upheavals encountered during the development process in other Latin American countries largely bypassed Venezuela. The violence associated with the emergence of mass party politics in the 1920s and 1930s in countries such as Mexico and Argentina had only a muted echo in Venezuela, which was also spared the bloodshed of the authoritarian military government experience in the 1960s and 1970s. The most striking factor in accounting for the comparatively violence-free nature of Venezuela’s political evolution was the enduring nature of oligarchic government in the country. Venezuela was late in democratizing and it was not until 1958 that a functioning democratic system was established. The persistence of caudillismo, a legacy of the profound instability of the post-Independence period, and its capacity for repression served to delimit demands for political and economic reform. Consequently, Venezuela did not experience the same system pressures stemming from mass-based populist mobilization in the first half of the twentieth century. When regime change did come in 1958, the newly democratic system was supported by the armed forces and it enjoyed wide popular legitimacy. As a result, civilian administration prevailed during the regional political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s and potential anti-system actors were absorbed into the political mainstream.
Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control r... more Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control regime has had an historical emphasis in on ‘narcotic’ drugs, such as opium, heroin and cocaine, rather than on a range of synthetic substances.• Associated policy inertia has resulted in disproportionate attention on counter-narcotic policies and operations in the Global South and in many ways inadequate responses to the synthetic market, including production that is frequently located in the Global North.• Possible explanations for this focus on plant-based drugs are manifold and complex. They include the fact that the control regime began with concerns over opium-smoking in the ‘orient’, a concentration of drug crops in the Global South, the energies of colonialism (which have been intimately tied up with ‘drug wars’), broader geo-political imperatives and the focus of policy metrics on drug crops.• The market for synthetic drugs has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming the se...
¿Hacia dónde va la oposición en Venezuela?: las maniobras de la derecha dura
Golpe de Estado, paro patronal, boicot de las elecciones… El ala radical de la oposicion venezola... more Golpe de Estado, paro patronal, boicot de las elecciones… El ala radical de la oposicion venezolana lo ha intentado todo para derrocar al presidente Hugo Chavez y, mas tarde, a su sucesor Nicolas Maduro. Mientras el caos economico y social favorecia sus propositos, saboteo los intentos de dialogo con el poder en 2018 y ahora cuenta con una intervencion estadounidense para conseguir sus objetivos.
This chapter explores the norms and assumptions that frame and sustain international drug policy ... more This chapter explores the norms and assumptions that frame and sustain international drug policy and the international drug control regime. Drug policy is conceptualised as a ‘policy fiasco’ that persists despite extensive evidence of goal failure. The absence of effective monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment, stakeholder participation and mainstreaming of rights-based approaches, conflict sensitivity and gender sensitivity is emphasised, substantiating the argument that drug policy is a case study of ‘institutional path dependence’. Drug policy has repeatedly missed targets for achievement of a ‘drug free world’. This is explained through reference to the counterproductive and ‘unintended consequences’ of a drug policy approach of criminalisation. The impacts of drug policy enforcement are shown to be negative, pernicious and disproportionately born by the poor, by vulnerable communities and those subject to discrimination on account of race, gender and class.
Special Issue: South American Perspectives on Peace Operations
International Peacekeeping, 2010
Help: about the FAC B Database The Food Additives and Contaminants - Surveillance Database is a s... more Help: about the FAC B Database The Food Additives and Contaminants - Surveillance Database is a searchable database containing all the surveillance data published in Food Additives and Contaminants Part B (FAC B) since its launch in June 2008. Search results may be ...
Page 1. Venezuela: Degenerative Democracy JULIA BUXTON Following a ... redistribution. The Electo... more Page 1. Venezuela: Degenerative Democracy JULIA BUXTON Following a ... redistribution. The Electoral System The control of the party elite, the cogollo, was further enhanced by the electoral system approved in 1958. Despite ...
Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control r... more Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control regime has had an historical emphasis in on ‘narcotic’ drugs, such as opium, heroin and cocaine, rather than on a range of synthetic substances.• Associated policy inertia has resulted in disproportionate attention on counter-narcotic policies and operations in the Global South and in many ways inadequate responses to the synthetic market, including production that is frequently located in the Global North.• Possible explanations for this focus on plant-based drugs are manifold and complex. They include the fact that the control regime began with concerns over opium-smoking in the ‘orient’, a concentration of drug crops in the Global South, the energies of colonialism (which have been intimately tied up with ‘drug wars’), broader geo-political imperatives and the focus of policy metrics on drug crops.• The market for synthetic drugs has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming the se...
As member states of the United Nations take stock of the drug control system, a number of debates... more As member states of the United Nations take stock of the drug control system, a number of debates have emerged among governments about how to balance international drug laws with human rights, public health, alternatives to incarceration, and experimentation with regulation. This series intends to provide a primer on why governments must not turn a blind eye to pressing human rights and public health impacts of current drug policies. The cultivation of drug crops such as opium poppy, coca, and cannabis is a vital source of economic and physical security for poor, marginalized, and vulnerable communities in the Global South. International drug control strategies that have targeted cultivators with violent state coercion and eradication strategies have fueled displacement, ecological damage, and land poverty, while exacerbating existing problems of malnutrition and infectious disease. Such approaches have proved particularly counterproductive in conflict contexts, where an assumed nex...
Are Barriers to Sustainable Development Endogenous to Drug Control Policies?
Revue internationale de politique de développement
This introductory article explains the rationale behind the 12th Thematic Issue of International ... more This introductory article explains the rationale behind the 12th Thematic Issue of International Development Policy, which explores the tension between development and drug control goals, both current and historic. The volume of fifteen articles draws on a broad spectrum of thematic issues to address the following key questions: Are prohibition and development mutually exclusive or complementary international agendas? How do the harms associated with drug policy enforcement undermine development prospects? The diverse group of authors highlight the corrosive effects of criminalisation and prohibition - based approaches on the livelihoods and fundamental rights of those who are vulnerable, including women, children, people who count on drug cultivation and trafficking to make a living, and people who use drugs. They also address the limitations and feasibility of development - focused interventions in drug control strategies within the context of the prohibition paradigm.
Contrôle des drogues et développement : un angle mort des politiques internationales
Revue internationale de politique de développement
La question du developpement a ete au centre de la politique anti-drogue internationale depuis le... more La question du developpement a ete au centre de la politique anti-drogue internationale depuis les premiers pas timides du regime de controle mondial des stupefiants, il y a plus d’un siecle. Mais la strategie concue pour limiter la culture des plantes psychotropes a impose un cout disproportionne aux territoires du Sud. Ce fardeau s’est alourdi dans l’apres-guerre et lorsque la Convention unique sur les stupefiants de 1961 et la « guerre contre la drogue » lancee par les Etats-Unis dans les annees 1970 ont institutionnalise les stupefiants comme un enjeu de securite et une preoccupation policiere. En depit de la penalisation et des efforts d’eradication coercitifs menes par les Etats, la culture illicite de plantes narcotiques (pavot a opium et coca) a persiste et elle a meme atteint des niveaux records a partir de 2015. De fait, la perception du role moteur joue par des deficits de developpement dans la culture illicite durable s’est amelioree ces dernieres decennies. Neanmoins, des efforts importants visant a renforcer les liens interinstitutionnels et thematiques entre la strategie anti-drogue et les objectifs de developpement ont entraine une reinvention des approches orthodoxes du controle de la drogue comme de la reduction de la pauvrete. Aucune de ces approches n’a toutefois connu de succes durable ou n’a souleve de preoccupations quant aux effets contre-productifs de la reproduction de telles politiques. En rassemblant de nouvelles idees au sein de paradigmes defaillants, le developpement alternatif se comprend mieux comme un « bricolage politique ».
National Identity and Political Violence: The Case of Venezuela
Political Violence and the Construction of National Identity in Latin America
Venezuela is not a country that is typically associated with political violence. The upheavals en... more Venezuela is not a country that is typically associated with political violence. The upheavals encountered during the development process in other Latin American countries largely bypassed Venezuela. The violence associated with the emergence of mass party politics in the 1920s and 1930s in countries such as Mexico and Argentina had only a muted echo in Venezuela, which was also spared the bloodshed of the authoritarian military government experience in the 1960s and 1970s. The most striking factor in accounting for the comparatively violence-free nature of Venezuela’s political evolution was the enduring nature of oligarchic government in the country. Venezuela was late in democratizing and it was not until 1958 that a functioning democratic system was established. The persistence of caudillismo, a legacy of the profound instability of the post-Independence period, and its capacity for repression served to delimit demands for political and economic reform. Consequently, Venezuela did not experience the same system pressures stemming from mass-based populist mobilization in the first half of the twentieth century. When regime change did come in 1958, the newly democratic system was supported by the armed forces and it enjoyed wide popular legitimacy. As a result, civilian administration prevailed during the regional political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s and potential anti-system actors were absorbed into the political mainstream.
Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control r... more Key Points:• Despite adjustments over its lifetime, the contemporary international drug control regime has had an historical emphasis in on ‘narcotic’ drugs, such as opium, heroin and cocaine, rather than on a range of synthetic substances.• Associated policy inertia has resulted in disproportionate attention on counter-narcotic policies and operations in the Global South and in many ways inadequate responses to the synthetic market, including production that is frequently located in the Global North.• Possible explanations for this focus on plant-based drugs are manifold and complex. They include the fact that the control regime began with concerns over opium-smoking in the ‘orient’, a concentration of drug crops in the Global South, the energies of colonialism (which have been intimately tied up with ‘drug wars’), broader geo-political imperatives and the focus of policy metrics on drug crops.• The market for synthetic drugs has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming the se...
¿Hacia dónde va la oposición en Venezuela?: las maniobras de la derecha dura
Golpe de Estado, paro patronal, boicot de las elecciones… El ala radical de la oposicion venezola... more Golpe de Estado, paro patronal, boicot de las elecciones… El ala radical de la oposicion venezolana lo ha intentado todo para derrocar al presidente Hugo Chavez y, mas tarde, a su sucesor Nicolas Maduro. Mientras el caos economico y social favorecia sus propositos, saboteo los intentos de dialogo con el poder en 2018 y ahora cuenta con una intervencion estadounidense para conseguir sus objetivos.
This chapter explores the norms and assumptions that frame and sustain international drug policy ... more This chapter explores the norms and assumptions that frame and sustain international drug policy and the international drug control regime. Drug policy is conceptualised as a ‘policy fiasco’ that persists despite extensive evidence of goal failure. The absence of effective monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment, stakeholder participation and mainstreaming of rights-based approaches, conflict sensitivity and gender sensitivity is emphasised, substantiating the argument that drug policy is a case study of ‘institutional path dependence’. Drug policy has repeatedly missed targets for achievement of a ‘drug free world’. This is explained through reference to the counterproductive and ‘unintended consequences’ of a drug policy approach of criminalisation. The impacts of drug policy enforcement are shown to be negative, pernicious and disproportionately born by the poor, by vulnerable communities and those subject to discrimination on account of race, gender and class.
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Papers by Julia Buxton