Barry R. McCaffrey
Published: 2001-08-31
Total Pages: 24
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Colombia's 40 million citizens must not be deserted by their neighbors. Leaving the Colombians to deal in isolation with a pervasive drug problem will deeply affect all 800 million of us in the Western Hemisphere through addiction, violence, and corruption. To achieve the degree of Pan-American solidarity suggested by such a thesis, we must first build a broad consensus that the drug problem is indeed hemispheric in its geographical extent, long-term in its duration, and broad-spectrum in its consequences. Approaches to the problem must therefore extend beyond such familiar objects of interstate cooperation as intelligence, law enforcement, evidence, chemical precursor control, gun smuggling, and money laundering-though these are vitally important. Our approaches must also grow to acknowledge the enormous social, medical, legal, economic, diplomatic, and security reverberations that sweep across national borders and embrace entire populations. Our approaches must recognize that the ultimate problem is driven not by the supply of cocaine and heroin, much of which does indeed come from the bleeding nation of Colombia, but rather by the demand. That demand emanates mainly from the United States but also increasingly from Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, and even Argentina and Chile. Drug corruption, violence, and addiction gradually spread until all of us are affected. Obviously, our approaches will require considerable time to achieve success, and they must involve the active cooperation of the entire community of nations. John Donne once wisely reminded us that no man is an island. He could as well have spoken of nations themselves, none of which in this crowded world can long escape the contamination of drug abuse and violence emanating from beyond its shores and borders. This bedrock reality argues for the absolute essentiality of a multinational focus. For this reason, we should be very grateful for the engagement of the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations (U.N.), and the European Union (EU), as well as the energetic and precisely targeted efforts of the Japanese government. In the pages that follow, I shall discuss, in turn, the following topics: Plan Colombia, the U.S. drug strategy, international cooperation, and the responsibility of academia and the think tanks to contribute to solutions.