Crime, Drugs and the State in Africa: The Nigerian Connection

History of International Relations, Diplomacy and Intelligence, 19
(History of International Relations Library, 30)

Based on previously classified government information and interviews with key officials and drug market insiders in Nigeria, this book is the first ever in-depth analysis of the international and domestic origins of illegal drug control in Africa, exploring the formulation and implementation of Nigerian drug policy between 1985 and 2010. During this period, the country came to be seen as a hub in the global drug trade and the domestic policy set in motion to tackle this perception escalated into Africa's most repressive and long-lasting anti-drug campaign. The book provocatively argues that Nigeria's drug war was not driven by an understanding of the country's drug problems but rather by political calculations made in Nigeria, the US and at the UN.
This meticulously researched and wonderfully lucid book is the first thorough study of Africa's complex drugs trades in a national context. The findings are startling. Nigeria's drugs connections are vividly described, but so too is the rhetoric and hype of the international crime control agencies. ... As Klantschnig reveals in this path-breaking book, the winners and losers in Nigeria's war on drugs are not what they may seem.
- David M. Anderson, University of Oxford -

Crime, Drugs and the State in Africa is an extraordinarily timely study. Appearing at a moment when drug cartels and drug markets are expanding very aggressively in Africa, this book is the first thorough examination of the drugs trade on the continent from a historical perspective. ... This is an essential book for those interested in both contemporary African politics and the global drugs trade.
- Charles Ambler, University of Texas at El Paso -

Table of Contents
List of Figures, Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Map of Nigeria
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Nigeria in the global drug trade
Chapter 3 The UN drug control system and Nigeria
Chapter 4 The African front in the US war on drugs
Chapter 5 The domestic politics of drug control
Chapter 6 The rhetoric of drug law enforcement and its practice
Chapter 7 The limited roles of civil society
Chapter 8 Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography

About the Author
Gernot Klantschnig, D.Phil. (2008) in Politics, University of Oxford, is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China. His publications have focussed on drugs, crime and law enforcement in Africa as well as on the international crime control system.