by Hal Jones

About the author: Hal Jones is editor in chief of Harvard International Review.

Many policymakers in Washington believe that the United States can use its role as the hegemonic power in the hemisphere to induce its neighbors to launch extensive campaigns against the production and trafficking of illegal narcotics. Since 1986, for example, the US Congress has required the president to assess the performance of Latin American nations in the war on drugs. If the efforts of the drug-producing country are judged to be insufficient, the US government “decertifies” that nation and cuts off aid. What US officials fail to realize is that the strength or weakness of Latin American anti-drug efforts is determined not so much by the level of...