| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article provides an intimate survey of the construction and early evolution of one element of America's security relationship with Turkey: the development of joint counter-narcotics operations in the city of Istanbul. In exploring how American officials came to influence the policing of narcotics trafficking in Turkey's largest city between the years 1948 and 1960, this piece hopes to contribute to two specific historiographical issues. First, the research presented here adds to the growing body of literature on the history of U.S. antinarcotics policies on the world stage. Secondly, it attempts to shed new light on the relationship between Turkey's narcotics economy and the evolution of the modern Turkish state. A close reading of how both Turkish and American officials approached narcotics trafficking at this stage in the Cold War affirms the degree to which law enforcement officials (particularly in counter-narcotics efforts) constrained their efforts for the sake of larger national security prerogatives. The case present here in this article provides instructive examples of how the so-called "war on drugs," even at this embryonic stage, ultimately served to promote American hegemony in Turkey and beyond.
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