The relationship between drugs and today's wars has grown more noticeable since the end of the Cold War and will likely gather strength in this era of increased globalization. Many violent groups and governments have recently turned to illicit narcotics in their entrepreneurial quests to stay viable in the post-Cold War world. It is no coincidence that many of the most violent and ongoing conflicts, from the Balkans to the Hindu Kush, from the Andes to the Golden Triangle, occur in areas of widespread drug production and well-traveled distribution routes. Interdisciplinary in its approach, Drugs and Contemporary Warfare investigates the convergence of drugs and modern warfare, the violent actors involved in the drug trade, the drugs they produce and distribute, and how these drugs enter into battlefield conflicts and give rise to combat narcosis. Paul Rexton Kan then examines counternarcotics operations and suggests solutions to curb the drug trade's effects on contemporary conflict. He offers several broad strategies that refine assessments, policies, and operations to promote improvement in social, economic, and political conditions. The hope is that these strategies will help citizens create sustainable societies and robust governments in war-afflicted countries struggling under the drug trade's shadow. In a world searching for peace, the answer may not solely be on the battlefield but also on the front line against illegal narcotics. With a foreword by Moisés Naím, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine and the author of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy.

Pharmacologically enhanced militaries -- Alcohol -- From pre-modern times to the end of the Second World War -- Pre-modern times: opium, hashish, mushrooms and coca -- Napoleon in Egypt and the adventures of Europeans with hashish -- The Opium Wars -- The American Civil War, opium, morphine and the "soldiers' disease"--The colonial wars and the terrifying "barbarians"--coca to cocaine: the First World War -- The Second World War -- The Cold War -- From the Korean War to the war over mind control -- In search of wonderful new techniques and weapons -- Vietnam: the first true pharmacological war -- The Red Army in Afghanistan and the problem of drug addiction -- Towards the present -- Contemporary irregular armies empowered by drugs -- Intoxicated child soldiers -- Drugs in the contemporary American Armed Forces -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: war as a drug

Introduction: How drugs made war and war made drugs -- Drunk on the front -- Where there's smoke there's war -- Caffeinated conflict -- Opium, empire, and Geopolitics -- Speed warfare -- Cocaine wars -- Conclusion: The drugged battlefields of the 21st century .

Broad coverage of the role of drugs in warfare and counterterrorism

The New York Times Bestseller What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong? Johann Hari's journey into the heart of the war on drugs led him to ask this question--and to write the book that gave rise to his viral TED talk, viewed more than 62 million times, and inspired the feature film The United States vs. Billie Holiday and the documentary series The Fix. One of Johann Hari's earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realized he had addiction in his family. Confused, not knowing what to do, he set out and traveled over 30,000 miles over three years to discover what really causes addiction--and what really solves it. He uncovered a range of remarkable human stories--of how the war on drugs began with Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer, being stalked and killed by a racist policeman; of the scientist who discovered the surprising key to addiction; and of the countries that ended their own war on drugs--with extraordinary results. Chasing the Scream is the story of a life-changing journey that transformed the addiction debate internationally--and showed the world that the opposite of addiction is connection.

"The goal of military medicine is to conserve the fighting force necessary to prosecute just wars. Just wars are defensive or humanitarian. A defensive war protects one's people or nation. A humanitarian war rescues a foreign, persecuted people or nation from grave human rights abuse. To provide medical care during armed conflict, military medical ethics supplements civilian medical ethics with two principles: military-medical necessity and broad beneficence. Military-medical necessity designates the medical means required to pursue national self-defense or humanitarian intervention. While clinical-medical necessity directs care to satisfy urgent medical needs, military-medical necessity utilizes medical care to satisfy the just aims of war. Military medicine may therefore attend the lightly wounded before the critically wounded or use medical care to win hearts and minds. The underlying principle is broad, not narrow, beneficence. The latter addresses private interests, while broad beneficence responds to the collective welfare of the political community"--

After years at the margins of medical history, the relationship between war and medicine is at last beginning to move centre-stage. The essays in this volume focus on one important aspect of that relationship: the practice and development of medicine within the armed forces from the late nineteenth century through to the end of the Second World War. During this crucial period, medicine came to occupy an important position in military life, especially during the two world wars when manpower was at a premium. Good medical provisions were vital to the conservation of manpower, protecting servicemen from disease and returning the sick and wounded to duty in the shortest possible time. A detailed knowledge of the serviceman's mind and body enabled the authorities to calculate and standardise rations, training and disciplinary procedures. Spanning the laboratory and the battlefield, and covering a range of national contexts, the essays in this volume provide valuable insights into different national styles and priorities. They also examine the relationship between medical personnel and the armed forces as a whole, by looking at such matters as the prevention of disease, the treatment of psychiatric casualties and the development of medical science. The volume as a whole demonstrates that medicine became an increasingly important part of military life in the era of modern warfare, and suggests new avenues and approaches for future study.