Realpolitik or imperial hubris: the Latin American drug war and U.S. foreign policy in Iraq /
Kenneth Sharpe
- 2006
Robert Kaplan has suggested that the US backed war on drugs in South America could be used as a model for tactics elsewhere. This article argues that despite decades of effort the US has actually achieved very little in its "drug war". In Iraq as in Columbia, US policy makers often fail to understand the fundamental sources of the conflict especially class, ethnicity, and nationalism. Also they fail to see that American policies contribute to the continuation of conflicts and presume U.S. omnipotence.