ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conceptualisation of security and threat. It will also look at the influence of the drug prohibition regime on state policy in order to analyse the link between recognising and understanding a phenomenon and policy making around it. It provides a framework to analyse why the United States and the European Union are pursuing drug control in the Andes in such different manners. It divides three sections to provide a framework for analysis: firstly, the concept of security and the 'securitisation' of a phenomenon will be investigated. Secondly, the implication of transnational organised crime as a non-traditional security threat and state policy on drug control will be investigated. It focuses on four state functions to analyse the threat posed to the state by transnational organised crime. These four functions are related to economic, political, public order and diplomatic relations. It concerns itself with the external relationship and issues of state sovereignty.
