Critical policy frontiers: The drugs-development-peacebuilding trilemma

Abstract

Recent years have seen the emergence of a policy consensus around the need for fundamental reforms of global drug policies. This is reflected in the call for 'development-oriented drug policies' that align and integrate drug policies with development and peacebuilding objectives, as captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These calls have been important in acknowledging the damage caused by the war on drugs and in drawing attention to how drugs are inextricably linked to wider development and peacebuilding challenges. Yet there is surprisingly limited academic research that looks critically at the drugs-development-peace nexus and which asks whether the goals of a 'drug-free world', 'sustainable development' and 'the promotion of peace' are commensurate with one another, can be pursued simultaneously, or are indeed achievable. This articles studies these policy fields and policy-making processes from the geographical margins of the statefrontiers and borderland regionsbecause they offer a privileged vantage point for studying the contested nature of policymaking in relation to the drugs-development-peace nexus. We set out a historical political economy framework to critically assess the assumptions underlying the integrationist agenda, as well as the evidence base to support it. By developing the notion of a policy trilemma we are critical of the dominant policy narrative that 'all good things come together', showing instead the fundamental tensions and trade-offs between these policy fields. In exploring the interactions between these policy fields, we aim to advance discussion and debate on how to engage with the tensions and tradeoffs that this integrationist agenda reveals, but which have to date been largely ignored.

Wicked Problems in Public Policy

“…Complex situations have emerged in the latter countries owing to the inter-dependencies between the livelihoods of rural workers and local warlords in remote borderlands. International organisations hoping to broker peace-deals must contend with the 'fundamental tensions and trade-offs' between the goals of sustainable development, drugs control and peace-building (Goodhand et al, 2021). The international dimension of the drug trade increases the political complexities and knowledge gaps.…”

“…Several broader initiatives have emerged to strengthen the role of citizens and local communities in oversighting the activities of corporations that promote GM agricultural products and other potential threats to the natural environment (Gordon et al, 2021;Kuzma & Grieger, 2020). The intention is to strengthen the governance and accountability elements of the regulatory frameworks, whether those currently operating in specific countries or those proposed by international organisations.…”

Organisational principles of the global drug economy

“…However, the interplay of addressing development deficits that drive illicit drug economies, tackling crime and illicit markets and, in some cases, settling armed conflicts is not necessarily mutually reinforcing. A "drugs-develop ment-peacebuilding trilemma" (Goodhand et al 2021) may make it diffi cult to pursue these goals all at once, given the trade-offs between the diverse objectives intertwined within this trilemma.…”

The mistrust of development in coca-growing regions in Peru: The valley of the rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro

“…In this region, coca cultivation began to increase significantly in the mid-1980s, during the armed conflict opposing the Peruvian state, the Maoist guerrilla group of the Shining Path and peasant self-defence groups in the 1980s and early 1990s (Durand Guevara, 2005;Pino, 1996), and has never stopped since then. The VRAEM thus began an exemplary case of borderland with increasing state interventionism due to the presence of an illicit economy linked to drug production, involving anti-drugs, peace-building, and development policies (Goodhand et al, 2021). Of these three political agendas, only the counterinsurgency policies pursued since the beginning of the armed conflict (1980) have been followed over time, despite a slight decrease in military presence between 2000 and 2007 (García, 2009;Koven, 2016;Zevallos Trigoso & Rojas Boucher, 2012).…”

“…Although more and more localized investigations have been conducted in illicit crop growing areas (Grisaffi, 2019;Heuser, 2017;Le Cour Grandmaison, 2016) we still lack information to understand farmers' perceptions beyond the economic motivations for growing illicit crops (Nacimiento, 2016;Stockli, 2017). 1 For Goodhand et al (2021), the consensus around the need to integrate drug control, development, and peace-building programs in regions of illicit production inevitably leads to tensions and trade-offs between the actors involved at different levels. Based on this observation, this article proposes to examine the representations of the inhabitants with regard to these trade-offs and conflicts of agendas during the implementation of development policies in the drugproducing regions.…”