A new issue of The Takeaway examines how decades of militarized policing shaped by both U.S. and Mexican government priorities have fueled the violence of Mexico’s drug war.

COLLEGE STATION, TX (April 2026) – Images of cartels, masked security forces, and soaring homicide rates dominate how the world understands Mexico’s drug war today. What is usually missing from the conversation is why drug enforcement became so violent and the role of the United States in promoting drug violence. By drawing on the findings of Policing on Drugs, a new book by Bush School Professor Aileen Teague, this Takeaway shows that Mexico’s contemporary security crisis is the result of decades of militarized policing shaped jointly by the priorities of the United States and the Mexican government.

You can read the full policy brief at “Policing on Drugs: The United States, Mexico, and the Origins of the Modern Drug War, 1969-2000” The author, Aileen Teage, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government & Public Service. Her research focuses on U.S.- Latin American relations, drug policy, militarization, and Cold War security. She is a former U.S. military officer and a dual citizen of Panama and the United States. She conducted multi-archival research in the United States and Mexico for Policing on Drugs, which is available through Oxford University Press.

The Takeaway is a publication of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics, and Public Policy at the Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University.