Baker Institute drug policy fellow Nathan Jones has won the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) Best Dissertation Award for 2012. His dissertation, “The State Reaction: A Theory of Illicit Network Resilience,” is “a testament the high quality of [Jones’] scholarly research and analysis,” said Ben Marquez, chair of the association’s selection committee.
Jones’ paper reconstructs the business models of two factions of the Arellano Felix drug cartel (also known as the Tijuana cartel). His conclusion: Cartels that focus on moving drugs survive longer than those that largely engage in kidnapping and extortion. What’s more, he asserts, “states and territorial profit-seeking illicit networks are enemies, because they are so much alike. They are both territorial, hierarchical, resilient and prone to violence.”
The dissertation is based on nine months of fieldwork, funded by the Institute Global Conflict and Cooperation, that included in-depth interviews with local businessmen, U.S. and Mexican government officials, organized crime victims, and law enforcement in Mexico City and Tijuana.
Jones earned his doctorate in political science from the University of California, Irvine, in 2011, and was named the Baker Institute Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy in June 2012. The WPSA recognized his award-winning dissertation at a March 29 event in California. Entries came from 17 western states in the U.S. and western provinces of Canada.