Trafficking During The Cold War

The Cold War is known as the period in history where conflicts between two major ideologies rose: capitalism versus communism. More commonly, the Cold War is the period right after World War II, where various political tensions rose between the Eastern bloc (the Soviet Union and their allies) against the Western Bloc (the United States and their allies). Although it may be hard to pinpoint the exact year the Cold War began, several historians have come to the consensus that this war began in 1945 and ended 44 years later in 1989. Due to the tension present at the time, the Cold War had a major impact on the rise of supply and demand for both the drug and arms trafficking. To effectively understand the role of the Cold War in trafficking, in

In a short matter of time, cocaine went from being legal, to being exported in bulk, to eventually overflowing the Western Hemisphere with hundreds of kilos yearly. The beginning of the cocaine trade can be seen through two distinct period of time: 1947 through 1959, and 1959 through 1964. It was during the first decade where we see the emergence of cocaine with the arrival of the Cold War, especially in Peru, where several anti-communist government forcibly pushed the trade out of Peru creating a chain of smugglers across neighboring countries. In the second decade, we can see the rampage of the cocaine trade as it is constructed into a more systemic and smuggling

An example of this would be the Iran-Iraq War that began in 1980 and ended in 1988. As soon as Iraq invaded Iran, a war erupted in which neither side was able to produce their own weapons. As a reaction to the war, the majority of the international community decided to put restriction on the weapons each country had access to, but the reality was that the strategic interest of suppliers made them turn a blind side when it came to trading illegal arms to these countries. This meant that both countries had to turn to the illicit market to meet their needs, but this was quite easier for Iraq than Iran. Since Iran was in bigger need due to them running low on equipment, they turned a blind side on their hostility towards the United States, and begged them for weapons, at which the U.S denied such request. At this point, Iran was struggling to acquire weapons, meanwhile Iraq was benefiting from the unofficial arms trade. The Iran-Iraq War serves as an example to how exactly the U.S government could shift the arms trafficking to their favor when it was