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Book abstract:
The European Union has developed an important role as an actor in the areas of Justice and Home Affairs, not least in that of drug control. This book explores the development of European drug enforcement policy since the 1960s and examines the key players in the process.
The work is divided into three parts. The first part examines the links between the processes of 'globalisation' and ideas of transnational threat, and presents historical background on the evolution of international drug control policy. The emergence of new forms of transnational governance are assessed and their relationship to European drug enforcement explored. The concept of epistemic communities and the consequences for policy development is examined. Part two offers a detailed empirical survey of the development of European drug enforcement policies since the late 1960s and includes two case studies of policy development - examining EU drug policy expert missions to the Caribbean, Latin America and Central Asia; and the development of drug policy under the UK Presidency of the EU in the first half of 1998. The third part draws a number of conclusions relative to the discussion found in part one, and questions whether or not the politicisation of anti-drugs enforcement policies in Europe has contributed to our understanding of the state role and the wider responses to drugs issues.
The book will interest students, scholars policy researchers and practitioners in the fields of international relations, law enforcement in the drugs arena and European studies.
Martin Elvins is Lecturer in European Politics at the University of Dundee.
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