New Books in Political Science Aileen Teague, "Policing on Drugs: The United States, Mexico, and the Origins of the Modern Drug War, 1969-2000" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Oct 22, 2025
Aileen Teague, an assistant professor at Texas A&M and author of 'Policing on Drugs,' explores the origins of the U.S.-Mexico drug war. She discusses operational strategies like Nixon's Operation Intercept and how increased U.S. enforcement complicates Mexican sovereignty. Teague reveals how Cold War dynamics shaped drug policies and led to militarization, alongside the negative impacts of U.S. programs like Operation Condor. She emphasizes the need for historical awareness in current U.S.-Mexico cooperation and suggests alternatives to reduce violence and improve outcomes.
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1969 Shift To Border-Centered Drug Policy
- Operation Intercept (1969) marked a U.S. turn to coercive border-focused drug policy and expanded U.S. drug-control bureaucracy into Mexico.
- The move set a template for forcing junior partners to adopt U.S. policing approaches with deep, long-term consequences.
Drug Policing Mixed With Political Repression
- Mexico funneled U.S.-sponsored drug-control resources into policing domestic political dissidents under the PRI.
- U.S. actors misread Mexico's Cold War stakes and enabled repression by conflating anti-PRI policing with counternarcotics.
Herbicide Campaigns Had Unseen Harm
- Operation Condor exported Vietnam-era herbicide eradication to Mexico but U.S. planners ignored on-ground social-control uses by the Mexican army.
- The campaign caused health scares, ineffective eradication windows, and destabilizing mass arrests in rural communities.
