The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Daily: Analyzing the Administration's New Counterdrug Approach
Sep 24, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Dan Byman, a terrorism expert from Georgetown, Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at CSIS, and legal analyst Scott R. Anderson dive into the U.S.'s new counterdrug strategies. They examine the implications of lethal strikes against drug smuggling boats and the challenges of framing drug trafficking under international law. The trio debates the importance of host governments in combatting cartels, the risks of retaliation against U.S. forces, and whether a counterterrorism approach can effectively address the persistent demand for drugs in America.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Policy Reframe From Interdiction To Kinetic Action
- The administration is reframing major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations to justify a more kinetic approach.
- That shift signals broader messaging to regional states and a desire to move from interdiction to destruction.
Narcotics Framed As Armed Attack Under Self‑Defense
- The legal claim treats narcotics trafficking as equivalent to an armed attack to justify self-defense and lethal force.
- That is a bold, unprecedented extension beyond typical uses of the FTO/SDGT sanctions regimes.
Who Counts As A Legitimate Target
- Classifying cartel members as non-state armed group fighters expands who becomes a lawful target under the law of armed conflict.
- That expansion raises hard factual questions about membership, targeting, and acceptable collateral harm.