Lawfare Daily: Analyzing the Administration's New Counterdrug Approach

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

Military, Intelligence, International Law, Constitutional Law, Rule Of Law, Politics, International Relations, News, Government, History, Diplomacy, Terrorism, National Security, Current Events, Law, Foreign Policy

4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Loren Voss, Public Service Fellow at Lawfare, sits down with Dan Byman, Lawfare Foreign Policy Editor and the Director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Ryan Berg, Director of the Americas Program and Head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative also at CSIS; and Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson. They talk about the new United States approach to drug smuggling, the lethal strikes against drug smuggling boats, and the ongoing counterdrug efforts in Mexico.

Anderson applies international law to the facts as known on the military strikes on drug smuggling boats, highlighting the difficulties of treating drug smuggling as a “use of force” and a transnational criminal organization as a non-state armed group. Byman and Berg discuss the importance of the host government in dealing with terrorist or criminal threats, but are skeptical that the counterterrorism framing will be effective without also addressing the demand for drugs within the United States. The group ends with a discussion on how current strategies and legal analysis could be applied to other geographies or criminal groups.

Mentioned in this episode:

“Deploying U.S. Vessels to the Caribbean Is a Show of Force,” by Ryan Berg and Eric Farnsworth

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1:12.6	This broader effort might be some of the cartels.
1:16.6	And in a way, that's a good thing.
1:18.6	These are nasty organizations, but that may just lead to greater competition.
1:22.6	And we've seen that happen before, where the defeat, if you want to call it that,
1:26.6	of one major drug ring
1:27.5	just leads to other ones that are striving to replace it. Production may not change overall.
1:34.1	The amount of narcotics going in may not change overall, but often you have a violent competition.
1:39.4	It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Lauren Voss, Public Service Fellow at Lawfare, with Dan Byman, a professor
	...

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