Illicit cross-border flows, such as the smuggling of drugs, migrants, weapons, toxic waste, and dirty money, are proliferating on a global scale. This underexplored, clandestine side of globalization has emerged as an increasingly important source of conflict and cooperation among nation-states, state agents, nonstate actors, and international organizations. Contrary to scholars and policymakers who claim a general erosion of state power in the face of globalization, this pathbreaking volume of original essays explores the selective nature of the stateOs retreat, persistence, and reassertion in relation to the illicit global economy. It fills a gap in the international political economy literature and offers a new and powerful lens through which to examine core issues of concern to international relations scholars: the changing nature of states and markets, the impact of globalization across place and issue areas, and the sources of cooperation and conflict.

There is no book quite like National Security and Core Values in American History. Drawing upon themes from the whole of the nation's past, William O. Walker III presents a new interpretation of the history of American exceptionalism, that is, of the basic values and liberties that have given the United States its very identity. He argues that a political economy of expansion and the quest for security led American leaders after 1890 to equate prosperity and safety with global engagement. In so doing, they developed and clung to what Walker calls the 'security ethos.' Expressed in successive grand strategies - Wilsonian internationalism, global containment, and strategic globalism - the security ethos ultimately damaged the values citizens cherish most and impaired popular participation in public affairs. Most important, it led to the abuse of executive authority after September 11, 2001, by the administration of President George W. Bush.

There is no book quite like National Security and Core Values in American History. Drawing upon themes from the whole of the nation's past, William O. Walker III presents a new interpretation of the history of American exceptionalism, that is, of the basic values and liberties that have given the United States its very identity. He argues that a political economy of expansion and the quest for security led American leaders after 1890 to equate prosperity and safety with global engagement. In so doing, they developed and clung to what Walker calls the 'security ethos.' Expressed in successive grand strategies - Wilsonian internationalism, global containment, and strategic globalism - the security ethos ultimately damaged the values citizens cherish most and impaired popular participation in public affairs. Most important, it led to the abuse of executive authority after September 11, 2001, by the administration of President George W. Bush.

William Walker traces British and American attempts to control the Asian opium trade from the fall of the Manchu dynasty in China in 1912 to the French withdrawal from Indochina in 1954. Analyzing the moral, cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, and security aspects of drug control, Walker argues that the fight against opium played a significant, and virtually unexamined, role in Anglo-American relations and security interests in the region.
Throughout much of China and Southeast Asia, many farmers had cultivated opium for generations, and at times survival itself seemed to depend upon the market for the poppy crop. Before World War II, the British tolerated the deeply entrenched culture of the poppy in China in order to safeguard their economic and political interests. Conversely, the Americans, who had far less at stake in Asia strategically or economically, consistently opposed the opium trade. During the war, the United States defined opium as a strategic commodity and tried to restrict Japanese access to it. Following the war, American hopes of limiting the Asian drug trade were thwarted by civil war in China. Finally, as the Cold War spread to Southeast Asia in the 1950s, drug control was subordinated to Western security concerns in the fight against communism.
Basing his study upon extensive archival research in British and American sources, Walker shows that the chances for opium control were never good and that ultimately the search for order in Asia on Western terms failed. United States drug-control officials, Walker contends, must share in the blame for that failure.
Originally published in 1991.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

A detailed look at drug control policy as it has been shaped historically in the United States and other countries, most notably in China and East Asia.

Drug policy has emphasized suppressing drugs at their source by curtailing their distribution, but few policy makers have considered legalization as a remedy. On the other hand, much of drug policy has been a record of bureaucratic infighting and aggrandizement. At the same time, it has reflected nativistic and racial biases. These essays suggest, however, that alternative strategies would not necessarily be any more successful. David Courtwright argues that legalization of drugs would create its own problems. Given the nature of federal policy, institutional structures, and social mores, the authors question whether drug policy could have been otherwise constructed.

William O. Walker has brought together leading scholars writing in the field to contribute essays that offer broad perspectives on the history of drug policy. They provide a comparative and historical lens through which to view the current debate over drug policy in the United States.