ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four highly multifaceted phenomena: the movement of people, the illicit drug traffic, public and private cultural exchanges, and the cultural diffusion among societies. The movement of people involves migrants and refugees and related state policies and actions. A number of factors encouraged the movement of people in the latter part of the nineteenth century from Europe to Latin America. The problem of the illicit drug traffic entered inter-American relations as a compelling, acrimonious, and intractable high priority issue. When the drug problem finally emerged as an international issue, the concern focused on the human consequences of drug use as a matter of public health; the concern then expanded as the scope and impact of illicit drug trafficking took on more ominous dimensions. With more open borders crime has become a transcontinental problem, as criminal organizations manage the flow of drugs and a vast illegal trade in automobiles, weapons, and migrants.
