The War on drugs through the lens of Empire US Foreign Intervention during the Colombian and Mexican Drug Wars, 1971-2005

Abstract

The war on drugs has been an on-going struggle for the United States. Since President Richard Nixon declared narcotics to be ‘public enemy number one’, the country has put financial resources and political effort into fighting the use, plantation and trafficking of drugs. The United States has been and still is trying to minimize the illegal export of narcotics to the country, with several measures. Different countries are fighting the battle against controlled substances, but the majority of measures were initiated by the United States.

This thesis will explore if the involvement of the United States in Colombia and Mexico can be seen as imperial. To come to a satisfying answer, theories on empire are used and tested on the war on drugs.