abstract: This thesis seeks to build upon the empirical use of the Copenhagen School of security studies by evaluating and investigating speech-acts in recent Guatemalan newspaper media as they relate to drug trafficking within the geopolitical borders of Guatemala, particularly induced by Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel. The study attempts to engage a critical theoretical framework to study securitization within the country and thereby build upon the theory by conducting real-life analysis. Using a research program that is made up of content and text analysis of national press and presidential speeches, I test several hypotheses that pertain to the processes of Guatemala's current drug trade and drug trafficking securitization. By coding securitizing speech-acts and discursive frames in the national print media, I identify the national elite, the power relations between the national elite and citizenship, and attempts to dramatize the issue of drug trade. Upon analyzing the findings of such securitization, I propose several hypotheses as to why the national elite seeks high politicization of drug trade and the implications that rest on such drastic measures. This thesis itself, then, has important implications: it uses empirical tools to help further the theoretical foundations of the Copenhagen School, it examines the process of securitization study from a real world context outside the developed world, and it presents important information on the possible consequences of securitizing drug trade. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Political Science 2011

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This paper will show that the trade in psychoactive substances has in fact been a major facilitator of the process now known as globalization. Not only has the drug trade fed off of globalization, globalization feeds off of and is driven by it. The perspective I will take here is a historical one. My thesis, that the drug trade has been an influential force on what is known as "globalization," is a reevaluation of the relationship between three historical processes: 1} The development over several centuries of a global system for the production, trade, and distribution of drugs 2} The "cold war" for economic and geopolitical hegemony between capitalist and communist power structures 3} The development and expansion of a global economic system, known in its current liberal phase as "globalization" / 2031-01-02

The thesis deals with the influence of international actors in the fight against organized crime. The issue of combating the organized crime is pictured on the case study of Colombia. Colombian organized crime is largely associated with drug trafficking, therefore the thesis concentrates on options for addressing drug problem. USA as the most important market for Colombian drug production is a major ally of Colombia in the fight against drugs. The thesis focuses on the joint policy initiatives of the USA and Colombia to resolve production and drug trafficking. The aim of the thesis is to find out possible solutions to adress drug trade and identify the benefits and shortcomings of antidrug policies for the case study of Colombia.

The war between the Peruvian state and the Maoist Shining Path rebels began in the Department of Ayacucho, an area with a majority of indigenous Quechua- speaking peasant villages. After twenty years of violence (1980-2000), this region of South America’s Andes began a critical period of demilitarization, refugee resettlement, and reconciliation. In this transition, the rebuilding of villages devastated by the war raises critical questions about indigenous autonomy, citizenship, and the role of international human rights initiatives in local reconciliation. I examine the tensions between interventions by national and transnational organizations, and the insecurities that continue to define everyday life in villages like Wiracocha - a newly resurrected community that was in the heart of the war zone.1 Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in this village and ten months of comparative fieldwork in villages across the Ayacucho region and in the city of Huamanga, my research shows that villagers were often at odds with the aid and interventions offered to them from the outside. I focus on the complicated nature of village war history, paying attention to the initial sympathy with Shining Path and the village's later decision to join the counterinsurgency. In Ayacucho, memory has itself become a site of struggle that reveals as much about present-day conflict, ambivalences, and insecurities of neoliberal Peru as it does about the actual history 1 Wiracocha is a pseudonym that I am using in order to maintain subject confidentiality. of the war. Villagers sometimes oppose official memory projects and humanitarian initiatives - including Peru's Truth Commission - that that they see at odds with their own visions and agendas. Finally, I examine the less predictable ways that villagers have redefined what it means to be Andean, including: the maintenance of village militarization, a return to hard-handed customary justice and the adoption of bornagain Christianity as a new form of moral order and social solidarity. / Dissertation

Searching for meaning within the real life experiences of frontline social workers working with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. There is a strong likelihood that during the course of a career a front line social worker will have the opportunity to work with a client who is or has been involved in the illegal drug trade. As there is essentially no existing research literature about social workers who work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade, one of the purposes of this research was to explore this experience from the perspective of front line social workers and bridge the gap in this research area. This qualitative interpretative analysis provided the opportunity to gain insight into and put meaning to the experiences and perceptions of the 11 frontline social workers as they work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. This research also provides valuable information and implications for practice and for further research.

Searching for meaning within the real life experiences of frontline social workers working with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. There is a strong likelihood that during the course of a career a front line social worker will have the opportunity to work with a client who is or has been involved in the illegal drug trade. As there is essentially no existing research literature about social workers who work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade, one of the purposes of this research was to explore this experience from the perspective of front line social workers and bridge the gap in this research area. This qualitative interpretative analysis provided the opportunity to gain insight into and put meaning to the experiences and perceptions of the 11 frontline social workers as they work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. This research also provides valuable information and implications for practice and for further research.

This diploma thesis provides a complex analysis of illicit drug trade in Latin America and Colombia and it describes its causes and trends. It also focuses on evaluation of anti narcotics strategies applied in Colombia. The first part of the thesis describes the illicit drug market and its global character and it concentrates on cocaine market in Latin America. The second part is devoted to Colombia and the historical development of illicit drug trade in said country. It contains analysis of several actors dominating the illicit drug market and of their roles and positions. It also describes anti narcotics policies in Colombia. The last section is an analysis of results and impacts of the policies applied in Colombia. It provides an overview of the current situation in Colombia and possible scenarios of future development of illicit drug trade.

(in English): This work studies the genesis of the FARC's ideological nature and the consequences of changes in its development which have had an impact on the conduct of warfare. A number of aspects which, in varying degrees, affect the direction of the guerrilla group are analysed successively. Firstly, the roots of the movement are discussed along with events which led to the creation of the FARC and the legitimacy of its political program. Thereafter, the functionality of the security policy of Colombian presidents for the last thirty years is examined. Participation in the illegal drug trade, which constantly changes the guerrilla's mechanism of functioning, has had appreciable influence on the process of forming the movement and consequently on the public view of the organization. Based on the study of the stated aspects and the analysis of three key constituents of guerrilla movement - political, military and economic components - a scheme describing the hierarchic realignment that has resulted in the consequent transformation of the organization was created.

Öppen droghandel har sedan tidigare varit ett känt problem globalt och under senare år har det även börjat att uppmärksammas i Sverige. Den öppna droghandeln tenderar att återfinnas i områden som klassas som särskilt utsatta, där den socioekonomiska statusen är låg och där kriminella har en stor inverkan på området. Syftet med studien har varit att kartlägga förekomsten av öppen droghandel i bostadsområdet Gullviksborg i Malmö. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar har det genomförts intervjuer med relevanta aktörer i området och deras svar har sedan analyserats med en tematisk analys. Resultaten från studien visar att Gullviksborg har problem med öppen droghandel och att det främst är ungdomsgäng som står för försäljningen. Merparten av ungdomarna som är involverade i droghandeln bor även i området. Det har visat sig att försäljarna ofta rör sig nära sina bostäder för att snabbt kunna söka skydd om det uppstår en risk att bli upptäckt. Fortsättningsvis har det visat sig finnas flera platser där det frekvent förekommer öppen droghandel i området, däribland i parken och i vändplatserna. Dessa platser används flitigt då det är lätt för såväl köpare som säljare att ta sig dit och det går snabbt att köra därifrån. Vidare finns det mycket buskage och växtlighet i parken där det går att gömma sig men även gömma narkotika. Resultaten från studien har sedermera använts för att ta fram åtgärdsförslag. Åtgärdsförslagen har utformats med hjälp av Panda modellen och checklistan VIPER. Det främsta åtgärdsförslaget som ges är samverkan mellan olika aktörer. Problematiken i Gullviksborg är komplex och det krävs således att aktörer såsom polisen, fastighetsägare, Malmö stad samt andra aktörer av betydelse samarbetar för att önskat resultat skall uppnås. / Open drug markets has previously been a global problem and in recent years it has also begun to receive some attention in Sweden. Open drug markets tend to be found in areas classified as particularly vulnerable, where the socio-economic status is low and where criminals have a major impact on the area. The purpose of this study has been to locate the occurrence of open drug trade in the residential area Gullviksborg in Malmö. To answer the study's questions, interviews were conducted with relevant actors in the area and their answers were then analyzed with a thematic analysis. The results from the study suggest that open drug trade is a problem in Gullviksborg and that it is mainly juveniles who handle the drug sales. Most of the juveniles involved in the drug trade also live in the area. It has been shown that the sellers often stay close to their homes in order to be able to quickly seek protection if there is a risk of being discovered. Furthermore it has turned out that there are several places where there is frequent open drug trade in the area, including the park and in the turning points of the streets. These places are used extensively as it is easy and quick to leave the place by car. Furthermore there is a lot of shrubbert and vegetation in the park where it is possible to hide but also to hide drugs. The results from the study have been used to produce proposals for actions. The proposals for actions have been designed using the Panda model and the Viper checklist. The main proposed action is collaboration between different actors and agencies. The problem in Gullviksborg is complex and it is thus required that actors such as the police, property owners, the city of Malmö and other important actors work together to achieve the desired results.

Abstract Chocó is a remote and biodiverse region located on Colombia’s Northern Pacific Coast. The region is home to indigenous Embera and Afro-descendant communities. Both communities share and contest a legacy of colonisation, violence, dispossession and discrimination. This thesis explores the ways in which the local communities of Chocó challenge and transform the matters that concern them. It focuses on their concerns over the effects of biodiversity conservation, development, and drug trade on their communities. It first investigates the challenges associated with doing research concerning both global and local concerns. Then, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chocó, it develops a methodology to address environmental value conflicts over the use of Utría National Park, located in the region. Third, the thesis studies the social protest of both local communities for the construction of a small hydroelectric power plant inside the park, finding that this protest for electricity reflects a complex post-colonial politics complementary to the discourse concerning political resistance as expressed by local and indigenous communities protesting against development. Fourth, drift-cocaine has been arriving recently to the coastal region of Chocó as a side effect of the country’s war on drugs. In Chocó, this phenomenon is referred to as the White Fish and is investigated here by situating its associated practices and transformations within the local context. Fifth, Utría National Park is explored visually as a place of rhythms and temporalities. Lastly, it argues that the mechanisms, grounded in concepts of solidarity and co-existence, which are employed by the local communities in negotiating the matters that concern them, provide alternative narratives to the ones often used to described them as in “poverty” and in need of “development”. / Tiivistelmä Chocó on syrjäinen ja biologisesti monimuotoinen alue Pohjois-Tyynenmeren rannikolla Kolumbiassa. Kyseinen alue on koti useille Embera-alkuperäiskansan jäsenille sekä Afrikasta polveutuville yhteisöille. Ryhmät jakavat ja haastavat kolonialismin, väkivaltaisuuksien, riiston sekä sorron värittämän historian. Tämä väitöskirja tarkastelee tapoja, joilla Chocón paikalliset yhteisöt haastavat ja muokkaavat heitä koskevia kysymyksenasetteluja. Se keskittyy yhteisöjä koskeviin huolenaiheisiin, jotka liittyvät biologisen monimuotoisuuden suojelun vaikutuksiin, kehitysinfrastruktuuriin ja huumekauppaan Ensimmäiseksi väitöskirja tarkastelee haasteita, jotka liittyvät maailmanlaajuisten muutosten ja paikallisten huolenaiheiden tutkimiseen. Tämän jälkeen työ kehittelee Chocóssa kerätyn etnografisen aineiston perusteella metodologiaa käsittelemään ympäristöön liittyviä arvoristiriitoja liittyen alueella sijaitsevan Utrían kansallispuiston käyttöön. Kolmanneksi väitöskirja tutkii paikallisyhteisöjen sosiaalista protestia liittyen pienen vesivoimalan rakentamiseen puiston alueelle. Havainnot haastavat tulkinnan, jonka mukaan infrastruktuurin hyväksyntä tai vastustaminen alkuperäiskansojen toimesta liittyy suoraan myös alkuperäiskansojen elämäntapojen puolustamiseen tai uhmaamiseen. Neljänneksi, ajelehtivaa kokaiinia on viime aikoina päätynyt Chocón rannikkoalueelle maan huumeiden vastaisen sodan seurauksena. Chocóssa ilmiöön viitataan nimellä Valkoinen kala, ja tässä työssä aihetta lähestytään tarkastelemalla siihen liittyviä käytänteitä ja muutoksia paikallisessa kontekstissa. Viidenneksi, Utrían kansallispuistoa tutkitaan visuaalisesti rytmien ja ajallisuuksien paikkana. Lopuksi esitetään, että paikallisten yhteisöjen hyödyntämät mekanismit heitä koskevissa keskusteluissa horjuttavat valtasuhteita epävarmoissa oloissa ja tarjoavat vaihtoehtoisia solidaarisuuden ja rinnakkaiselon narratiiveja, joilla lähestyä huolenaiheita.