On 22^nd October the RAS, Zed Books and the International African Institute will be launching (at SOAS) the latest book in the African Arguments series, Africa and the War on Drugs by Neil Carrier and Gernot Klantschnig.

We will be publishing our own review next week by Stephen Ellis – a leading commentator on the drugs trade in Africa, and the continent’s future more generally.

In conjunction with the book launch we will be running several pieces by the authors and external experts reflecting on some of the book’s key issues.

To start off we feature author Gernot Klantschnig’s critique of contemporary commentary on the West African drugs trade:

In a recent New York Times article – “˜US Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels’ – a high-level US drug official states: “˜We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues. It’s a place that we need to get ahead of – we’re already behind the curve in some ways, and we need to catch up.’ This is just one of many recent government and UN statements, as well as news reports across Africa and in the west, telling us that the continent is transforming into the newest centre in the international cocaine and heroin trade and that the international community and African governments need to act swiftly to contain the threat.

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