Bad Neighbor Policy - by Ted Galen Carpenter (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The domestic phase of Washington's war on drugs has received considerable criticism over the years from a variety of individuals. Until recently, however, most critics have not stressed the damage that the international phase of the drug war has done to our Latin American neighbors. That lack of attention has begun to change and Ted Carpenter chronicles our disenchantment with the hemispheric drug war. Some prominent Latin American political leaders have finally dared to criticize Washington while at the same time, the U.S. government seems determined to perpetuate, if not intensify, the antidrug crusade. Spending on federal antidrug measures also continues to increase, and the tactics employed by drug war bureaucracy, both here and abroad, bring the inflammatory "drug war" metaphor closer to reality. Ending the prohibitionist system would produce numerous benefits for both Latin American societies and the United States. In a book deriving from his work at the CATO Institute, Ted Carpenter paints a picture of this ongoing fiasco.

Review Quotes

"...war on drugs is an all-too-bloody reality, argues this meticulous and impassioned indictment of U.S. drug policy." --Publishers Weekly Annex (February 3, 2003)

"A refreshingly candid, controversial, and hard-hitting assessment of Washington's increasingly expensive...utterly futile campaign against illegal drugs." --Kenneth Maxwell, Foreign Affairs

"Mr. Carpenter asks Washington to stop its demeaning and costly 'spectacle of alternately bribing and threatening its neighbors....'" --William H. Peterson, Washington Times

About the Author

Ted Galen Carpenter is Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Captive Press, among other titles.