The global war on drugs: militarism and its human rights consequences

This article presents an analytical framework that explains how militarism emerged as the prevailing paradigm in narcotic governance and its implications for human rights. The framework comprises four interconnected mechanisms—dehumanization, moralistic justifications, intensified state coercion, and a culture of impunity—that uphold and legitimize militarized drug policies. Dehumanization portrays populations as expendable threats, while moralistic narratives depict repression as necessary for maintaining public order and security. These processes enable intensified state coercion, evident in militarized policing, mass incarceration, and extrajudicial violence, while a culture of impunity protects perpetrators from accountability, consequently perpetuating cycles of state violence. This framework contributes to scholarship in international relations, security studies, and political sociology by demonstrating how states and other transnational as well as domestic actors institutionalize expanded and intensified violence in narcotic drug governance.