This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Crick, Emily Title: Security and the drug control dispositif Analysing the construction of drugs as an existential threat to humankind and the nation state General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. 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Security and the drug control dispositif: Analysing the construction of drugs as an existential threat to humankind and the nation state By Emily Crick A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of PhD (Politics) in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), January 2018 Word Count: 78010 1 Declaration: I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ...........Emily Crick...................................... DATE: ...18/09/18...................... 2 Abstract It has commonly been argued that drugs have been securitized, however relatively little in-depth analysis has been carried out on this subject. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature by using a combination of Foucault’s concept of the dispositif and a sociological interpretation of securitization theory to examine how drugs have become constructed as existentially threatening to humankind and the state by the United Nations (UN) and the United States of America (US). The two securitizations analysed here - the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (Single Convention) and US President Reagan’s 1986 National Security Decision Directive 221 (NSDD-221) -took place within the wider historical context of a control-oriented dispositif, it is argued, but also re-shaped the international drug control system and the drug control dispositif in profound ways. The thesis concludes that the drug control dispositif has continued to evolve through time and across space, and that the securitization of drugs by the US and UN has limited the range of options available within international and domestic drug policies, often exacerbating the harms to humans and the state – the very referent objects that these securitizations aim to protect. Discourse analysis of archival documents from the British National Archives, the US National Archives and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, and process-tracing of media sources are used to examine the ways in which drugs became securitized and how these securitizations affected the drug control dispositif. In order to understand the context in which the securitization(s) of drugs occurred, this thesis firstly identifies the various forms of control that were used during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then analyses how the Single Convention and NSDD-221 established drugs as being threatening to humankind and the state through securitizing speech acts and non-discursive practices and how these securitizations re-oriented the drug control dispositif towards a prohibitionist paradigm. Finally, this thesis explores how various discourses and practices are challenging the ‘drugs as a threat’ discourse but still sit firmly within the drug control dispositif. 3 CONTENTS Chapter One. Introduction 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11 2. Research questions and reflexivity …………………………………………………………………....... 14 3. What are drugs? ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…………….. 20 4. Thesis structure ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27 Chapter Two. Securitization as a Political Process: Theory and Method 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..….. 30 2. What is distinctive about securitization theory? ………………………………………………………...... 31 3. Securitizations as combination of contextually situated speech acts and practices within the drug control dispositif ……………………………………………………………………………….….. 34 4. The relevance of a ‘sociological’ approach to the securitization of drugs ……………….……… 39 5. The securitizing ‘acts’: speech act(s) and practices ……………………………………………….. 42 5.1. Function and importance of the speech act …………………………………………..……………….. 42 5.1.1. The referent object ……………………………………………………………………………..……............... 47 5.1.2. The existential threat ……………………………………………………………………………….………………… 47 5.1.3. Extraordinary measures – politics, security and emergency …….……………………..………………. 49 5.2. Discursive and rhetorical strategies ……………………………………………………………………..…. 50 5.3. Securitization through practice ……………………………………………………………………………………… 53 6. Agents of securitization …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 54 6.1. Actor(s) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 54 6.2. The audience(s) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 59 7. Context: more than just a facilitating condition ………………………..………………………. 61 8. When does a ‘successful’ securitization occur, and does it really matter? ……………………..…. 64 9. Responses: desecuritizations, counter-securitizations and resistance …………………..…… 66 10. Methodology …………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 68 10.1. Discourse analysis and the speech acts ………………………………………………………………. 70 10.2. Intratextuality and discursive themes ……………………………………………………………….. 72 10.3. Process-tracing and securitization studies ……………………………………………………………….. 74 11. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 76 4 Chapter Three. The Historical Evolution of the Drug Control Dispositif 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78 2. The development of the drug control dispositif ……………………………………………. 80 2.1 Governmentality and biopolitics: statistics and licensing ……………………………………………. 83 2.2 Surveillance and discipline: moral and social controls …………………………………………….. 86 2.3 Law and coercion: trade and criminalisation ……………………………………………………….… 88 3. The ‘foundational treaties’: cooperation, control and threat …………………………………. 94 3.1. The need for international cooperation ………………………………………………………….. 94 3.2. National interest versus international controls ………………………………………………. 97 3.3. What is the threat?: defining ‘legitimate’ use …………………………………………….… 99 3.4. The international drug control system: expert bodies and the creation of a monitoring system ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 102 3.5. Forms of control: prohibition or regulation …….……………………………………………………. 105 4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 109 Chapter Four. ‘Drug Addiction as a Serious Evil’: The Construction of Drugs as a Threat to Humankind in the 1961 UN Single Convention 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 118 2. The securitizing ‘acts’: speech act(s) and practices ……………………………………………… 114 2.1 The Single Convention as a speech act …………………………………………………………………….... 114 2.1.1. The referent object ………….……………………………………………………………………………………. 118 2.1.2. The existential threat …………………….……………………………………………………………………….... 120 2.1.3. Extraordinary measures …………………….……………………………………..………………………………….. 124 2.2. The discursive and rhetorical strategies …………………………………………………………………. 127 2.3. Practices that contributed to the securitization of drugs: national and international policies ………………………………………….……………………………………………………….. 130 2.3.1. Incorporation of the Single Convention into domestic law ………….………………………. 131 2.3.2. Access to essential medicines ………………………………………………………………………………. 136 3. The agent: actor(s), audiences …………………………………………………………….…. 138 3.1. Those who supported the designation of ‘security’ ………………………………………………. 138 3.1.1. The US and their allies …………………..………………………………………………………..…….. 137 3.1.2. The drug control bodies ………………………………..……………………………………………..….. 140 3.2. Oppositional voices at the plenipotentiary conference ……………………………………...... 143 5 3.2.1 Substances under control and changes to the scope of control …………………….…………. 144 3.2.2. Production controls ………………………………………………………………………….…….. 146 3.2.3. Treatment for problematic users …………………………………………………………………………..……. 149 3.3. The ‘audiences’: ratification and US-led opposition to the Single Convention