Syllabus

• Week 1

  Drugs, development and peacebuilding: the trilemma

  • Introduction to the course

    Meet the teaching team, meet each other, and learn about what's ahead.

  • What do you know about drug policies?

    Explore drug policies in drug-producing countries in the global south. Take a quiz to explore your own knowledge of these issues. What surprising findings emerge?

  • Learning about illicit economies in conflict-affected borderlands

    What can we learn about illicit economies and conflicts by researching borderland regions? Introducing three major drug-producing regions of the world.

  • Drugs, development and peacebuilding: a policy trilemma

    Learn about a new framework for exploring drugs, development and peacebuilding, and use it to gain new insights into challenges facing efforts to tackle drugs, achieve inclusive development and promote sustainable peace.

  • Summarising the week

    As you finish the first week of the course, take some time to consider what you have learned so far.

• Week 2

  Drugs and drug policies

  • Introducing the week

    What are drugs and what policies are used to tackle them? Explore international drug control and zoom into Colombia and Myanmar to learn how policies impact on the drug trade and people who live in drug-producing regions.

  • Understanding drugs

    Explore how drugs are defined and assess the different meanings, moralities, and functions of drugs, across different societies and at different times.

  • Drug control and drug harms

    Examine the emergence of international drug control, and the policies and impacts of the US-led 'War on Drugs' in Colombia. Explore understandings of drug harm and risk environments.

  • Local responses to drugs in Myanmar

    Learn about Pat Jasan, an anti-drugs movement in Myanmar, and about how attempts to address the harms caused by drugs can generate new forms of harm.

  • Drugs policy, development policy and peacebuilding: what are the connections?

    Learn new ways to think about the consequences of drug policies, and how they relate to development and peacebuilding.

  • Summarising the week

    As you finish the second week of the course, take some time to consider what you have learned so far.

• Week 3

  Peacebuilding, violence and conflict

  • Introducing the week

    War to peace transitions are always challenging, but particularly in regions affected by illicit drug economies. Learn how drugs shape the dynamics of (dis)order, and the implications for peacebuilding policies.

  • Peacebuilding, violence and drugs

    Drug economies are often associated with violence. But are illicit drugs always a fuel for conflict? Learn more about the complex relationships between drugs, violence and peacebuilding.

  • The politics of peace in Colombia and resurging violence

    Colombia's sought-after ‘war-to-peace transition’ was messy and contested from the start. Explore how the peace process played out on the ground and its impact on peoples' lives in the borderlands.

  • Less conflict, more drugs: experiences of ‘peace’ in Myanmar

    Ceasefires in Myanmar’s borderlands reduced armed conflict in the 1990s and 2000s but increased the region’s drug trade. Explore the political, economic and social dynamics of Myanmar’s ceasefires to understand why.

  • Returning to the policy trilemma

    Policy makers often assume that tackling drugs and building peace go hand in hand. Let's explore whether this is the case in practice.

  • Summarising the week

    As you finish the third week of the course, take some time to consider what you have learned so far.

• Week 4

  Development

  • Introducing the week

    Learn about the relationships between illicit drugs and development and study the lessons from alternative development projects in Afghanistan and Colombia.

  • Drugs and sustainable development

    Explore how drug economies interact with processes of development and find out about how 'alternative development' projects have impacted on drugs.

  • Drugs and development in the borderlands

    Learn about the role of borderlands as hubs for illicit economies, but also as centres of rapid change, innovation and development.

  • Case study 1. Afghanistan: drugs, war and development

    Follow drugs from farmers' fields to the border, in southwestern Afghanistan. Explore the interactions between drugs, war and development, as well as efforts to combat drugs through alternative development programmes.

  • Case study 2. Stories from Colombia’s borderlands

    Learn about efforts to address drugs in Colombia through a national drug substitution programme. Explore this programme and the everyday impacts of drug economies in frontier regions through the eyes of social leaders.

  • Rethinking drugs and development

    Can drugs and development goals be reconciled in practice? Examine the tensions and trade offs between these sets of policies when pursued in drugs-affected borderlands.

  • Summarising the week

    As you finish the fourth week of the course, take some time to consider what you have learned so far.

• Week 5

  Applying trilemma thinking

  • Introducing the week

    Recognising that the ‘War on Drugs’ has failed is one thing, but what replaces it? Learn how policy making might be reformed to address drugs, development and peacebuilding challenges.

  • Revisiting the drugs, development and peacebuilding trilemma

    Significant tensions and trade-offs exist between drugs, development and peacebuilding goals. What does this mean for policy? How can policy makers locate and navigate these tensions?

  • Concluding the course

    Listen to practitioners reflect on the challenges they face reconciling drugs, development and peacebuilding goals. Share your own insights into how what you have learnt from this course. How will it shape your future work?

Who will you learn with?