The Counterdrug Effort: An Estimate for the Operational Commander

Abstract

In the past decade, the public rhetoric surrounding a long-standing social problem -- has intensified in scope and vigor. The counterdrug effort has earned the tag Drug War, and as befits a war, the Department of Defense has been assigned a lead role. This paper seeks to strip away the veneer of warlike terminology surrounding the fight against drugs. It will attempt to focus the military's role and recommend in general a concept of operations for a unified commander planning to meet an antidrug mission. It does so by broadly applying the Commander's Estimate process. The paper identifies that greatest risks in the counterdrug effort as political -- in both the domestic and the international arena. After re-examining the DOD's limited mission in interdicting illegal drugs, a sensible strategy to match these limited objectives will be offered -- one which will both contribute meaningfully to the fight and also leave the commander's forces better trained and more capable.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 11, 1991
Accession Number
ADA236877

Entities

People

  • Russell T. Strother

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Detection
  • Drug Abuse
  • Drug Interdiction
  • Governments
  • Hispanics
  • Law
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Security
  • Social Problems
  • Societies
  • Task Forces
  • United States Southern Command
  • Warfare

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