Drew Cottle - Böcker

Since the late 1990s, the United States has funneled billions of dollars in aid to Colombia, ostensibly to combat the illicit drug trade and State Department-designated terrorist groups. The result has been a spiral of violence that continues to take lives and destabilize Colombian society. This book asks an obvious question: are the official reasons given for the wars on drugs and terror in Colombia plausible, or are there other, deeper factors at work? Scholars Villar and Cottle suggest that the answers lie in a close examination of the cocaine trade, particularly its class dimensions. Their analysis reveals that this trade has fueled extensive economic growth and led to the development of a "narco-state" under the control of a "narco-bourgeoisie" which is not interested in eradicating cocaine but in gaining a monopoly over its production. The principal target of this effort is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who challenge that monopoly as well as the very existence of the Colombian state. Meanwhile, U.S. business interests likewise gain from the cocaine trade and seek to maintain a dominant, imperialist relationship with their most important client state in Latin America.Suffering the brutal consequences, as always, are the peasants and workers of Colombia. This revelatory book punctures the official propaganda and shows the class war underpinning the politics of the Colombian cocaine trade.

Since the late 1990s, the United States has funneled billions of dollars in aid to Colombia, ostensibly to combat the illicit drug trade and State Department-designated terrorist groups. The result has been a spiral of violence that continues to take lives and destabilize Colombian society. This book asks an obvious question: are the official reasons given for the wars on drugs and terror in Colombia plausible, or are there other, deeper factors at work? Scholars Villar and Cottle suggest that the answers lie in a close examination of the cocaine trade, particularly its class dimensions. Their analysis reveals that this trade has fueled extensive economic growth and led to the development of a "narco-state" under the control of a "narco-bourgeoisie" which is not interested in eradicating cocaine but in gaining a monopoly over its production. The principal target of this effort is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who challenge that monopoly as well as the very existence of the Colombian state. Meanwhile, U.S. business interests likewise gain from the cocaine trade and seek to maintain a dominant, imperialist relationship with their most important client state in Latin America.Suffering the brutal consequences, as always, are the peasants and workers of Colombia. This revelatory book punctures the official propaganda and shows the class war underpinning the politics of the Colombian cocaine trade.

The book traces the origins of US hegemony from the planning conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations in the late 1930s to the implementation of strategies for US dominance at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, where the US dollar was installed as the world's reserve currency. The book demonstrates how the US dollar's reserve currency status underpinned the economic primacy and power of the United States in the post-war period. It highlights the importance of the 1974 deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia to exchange US dollars for Saudi oil. It also examines the debate about the future of the US dollar's status within the global financial system.

This book is a study of how and why Nepal after a 10 year long armed insurgency, regicide and fundamental political change sought to find a way to achieve peace and security. The chosen pathway to peace and reconciliation in Nepal after the decade of war and destruction is examined. It has faced delay, frustration and neglect after its protracted implementation. Politics has determined whatever peace process will be achieved in Nepal.

The spectre of 'Communism' was used to justify the expansion of American global leadership throughout the twentieth century. Nowhere was this more evident than in their 'backyard' of Latin America. The fear and hysteria created by the perceived communist menace justified the demonization of democratic reformers, the mischaracterization of political unrest, the overthrow of democratic regimes, the prolonged support of military dictatorships and the continued political and economic subservience of much of Latin America to the USA throughout the era of the Cold War and beyond. 'Pretext: Anti-Communism in Latin America' examines the origins of this hysteria from 1930-1965. It suggests that the academic focus on the rise and fall of communism has distracted analysis from the non-communist reformers who fought for democracy, social justice, and independent economic development. This timely reinterpretation of the origins of the Cold War in Latin America seeks to explain the continuing power imbalance between the US and the Latin American republics.