Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Felbab-Brown, Vanda. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Brookings Institution Press. The brookings institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Interpretations or conclusions in Brookings publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors. Its principal purpose is to bring the highest quality independent research and analysis to bear on current and emerging policy problems. SHOOTING UP COUNTERINSURGENCY AND THE WAR ON DRUGSĪbout brookings The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to research, education, and publication on important issues of domestic and foreign policy. When combined with interdiction targeting major traffickers, this strategy gives policymakers a better chance of winning both the war against the insurgents and the war on drugs. While aggressive efforts to suppress the drug trade typically backfire, Shooting Up shows that a laissez-faire policy toward illicit crop cultivation can reduce support for the belligerents and, critically, increase cooperation with government intelligence gathering. In addition, the author explores the interaction between insurgent groups and illicit economies in frequently overlooked settings, such as Northern Ireland, Turkey, and Burma. Shooting Up shows vividly how powerful guerrilla and terrorist organizations - including Peru’s Shining Path, the FARC and the paramilitaries in Colombia, and the Taliban in Afghanistan - have learned to exploit illicit markets. Felbab-Brown, a leading expert on drug interdiction efforts and counterinsurgency, draws on interviews and fieldwork in some of the world’s most dangerous regions to explain how belligerent groups have become involved in drug trafficking and related activities, including kidnapping, extortion, and smuggling. Worse, they actually strengthen insurgents by increasing their legitimacy and popular support. Counternarcotics campaigns, particularly those focused on eradication, typically fail to bankrupt belligerent groups that rely on the drug trade for financing. But the conventional wisdom is dangerously wrongheaded, as Vanda Felbab-Brown argues in Shooting Up. Stop the flow of drug money, the logic goes, and the insurgency will wither away. Most policymakers see counterinsurgency and counternarcotics policy as two sides of the same coin. Shooting Up Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs
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