Dimensions of Drug-Trafficking in the United States: Governance and Policies in North America

The international security agenda has widened in the past two decades as a result of the globalization of threats; their nature and scope have changed and posed new challenges to the state, which still is both the political entity with the legitimate use of force and the primordial security provider in international relations. The consumption of prohibited substances has been inextricably linked to human societies and each one has found channels to subtly control the effects of illegal markets on the political, economic, and social structures. From the perspective of national and international security, the problem arises when the tolerance threshold is crossed and the authority of the state is eroded and eventually controlled by drug cartels.