Alain Labrousse

The World Geopolitics of Drugs, 1998/1999 Alain Labrousse Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2001 edition

Marc Notes: This annual report is even more indispensable than earlier ones for the simple reason that it is the last report. Everyone who studies the international traffic in narcotics, or writes about it, or is merely concerned with it as a responsible citizen, is forever in the debt of Alain Labrousse and his coworkers at the OGD in Paris. Table of Contents: Acknowledgements. List of Maps. Foreword, A. A. Block. Introduction. Part One: Global Problems. Money laundering in the South: The modernity of tradition. Offshore banking: Center of the economic world's attention. Opium problems: Estimation of illegal crops and diversion of legal crops. Part Two: Asia. Central Asia. Country reports. Maps 1-4. Part Three: Europe. Analyses. Country reports. Map 5. Part Four: The Americas. Analyses. Country Reports. Maps 6-11. Part Five: Africa. Analyses. Country Reports. Maps 12-13. Publisher Marketing: The other report is published by the U. S. State Department and is more "committed," but only as far as the national interest of the world's only su perpower is concerned. Therefore, the State Department report must be read while keeping in mind the state of U. S. relations with the countries concerned. This report is accompanied by the so-called "certification" process, whose ar bitrary character has often been stressed. For instance, Iran, a country whose determination to fight the drug transit on its territory is well-known - more than 100 Iranian law enforcement agents die every year as a restult - was removed from the "blacklist" of "decertified countries" in the spring of 1999, precisely as it was inaugurating a policy of opening itself to external influ ence, including that of the United States. In retrospect, this demonstrates that the U. S. government had decertified Iran in past years because it was viewed as an Islamic and terrorist country, not because of its supposed involvement in drug trafficking. Neither does the last State Department report explain why Haji Ayub Afridi, a major Pakistani drug baron, who had voluntarily surrendered to U. S. authorities, returned to Pakistan in 1999 after spending a mere three and a half years in a U. S. prison." Contributor Bio:  Labrousse, Alain Journaliste et sociologue, Alain Labrousse est l'auteur d'une dizaine d'ouvrages dont la moitie est consacree aux drogues. Ces livres sont le fruit d'enquetes de terrain, particulierement en Amerique du Sud, en Afrique de l'Ouest et en Afghanistan. Au debut des annees 1990, il fonde avecMichel Koutouzis l'Observatoire geopolitique des drogues (OGD), dont les travaux et expertises sont reconnus a travers le monde. Sous sa direction, l'OGDpublie un "Atlas mondial des drogues" (PUF, 1997), et realise des expertises pour le compte du gouvernement francais, de l'Union europeenne et du Programme des Nations unies pour le controle international des drogues (PNUCID). Alain Labrousse est l'auteur d'"Afghanistan, opium de guerre, opium de paix" (Mille et Une Nuits, 2005), de "Geopolitique des drogues" (PUF, Que sais-je ?, 2004), d'un "Dictionnaire geopolitique des drogues: La drogue dans 134 pays: productions, trafics, conflits, usages" (De Boeck, 2002), et de "La Drogue, l'argent et les armes" (Fayard, 1991).