» Veröffentlicht am
3. Juli 2026
Against the Narco Narratives - New Long-Term Group
There is a connection between drug markets, violence, and state power that is as strong as it is ominous: The handling of drugs and drug trafficking—especially in the Americas—is characterized by militarized measures that can take on war-like proportions. “Yet what is commonly referred to as a drug cartel requires entirely different measures. Militarization is like pouring oil on a fire and only generates even more violence,” states Dr. Philipp Wolfesberger, a political scientist at Bielefeld University. Together with Dr. Estefanía Ciro Rodriguez, director of the independent research institute AlaOrillaDelRío in Colombia, sociologist Dr. Alke Jenss of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, and Oswaldo Zavala, professor of Latin American cultures at the City University of New York, he leads the new Long-Term Group “Dimensions of Regulation: Conceptualizing the the Drugs/Violence Nexus.”
The international research group’s first workshop took place last week: the focus was on analyzing the militarized narratives surrounding the war on drugs. “Certain security policies require certain narratives, and these are extended to various sectors of society; the drug trade is one of them,” sais Wolfesberger. “In English, ‘narco’ is now used to refer to any illegal activity, but it always serves to legitimize a specific security policy—the militarized security policy.”
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