Drugs, Wars, Soldiers and Veterans

Call for papers:

The international journal Substance Use and Misuse is soliciting submission for a special issue about Drugs, Wars, Soldiers and Veterans.
Guest Editors are: Andrew Golub, Ph.D. and Alexander Bennett, Ph.D.

This special issue will broadly explore issues related to drugs, substance use, and military conflicts which may or may not be officially identified as war. Substances considered can include licit and illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and the use of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes. Papers may address the following broad areas of interest:

• Drug use during conflicts. For many, the experiences of war can involve substance use for recreation, coping, and performance enhancement. This usage may be an individual choice, part of a prevailing culture, or even expected and/or facilitated by some level of the military command.
• Returning veterans. Returning veterans may continue substance using behaviors rooted in their military experience or develop new behaviors perhaps in response to military experiences and possibly related mental health concerns. We are interested in all aspects of veterans substance use including use/abuse, markets, contexts of consumption, related consequences, and treatment experiences, globally as well as historically.
• Other roles of drugs in war and conflict. Members of military and paramilitary organizations as well as the organizations themselves have often engaged in trafficking. Some organizations have used the revenue to support their military efforts. In this regard drugs can be intimately involved with the functioning and purpose of a military conflict.

The importance of this topic has again been highlighted as more is learned about the experiences of U.S. military personnel and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. However, the relationship between drugs and military conflict is complex and not unique to these recent experiences. For this special issue we are interested in these and other conflicts both current and historical. Submissions may take any of a range of disciplinary approaches including but not limited to public health, public policy, institutional, historical, sociological, epidemiological, and anthropological perspectives.

Authors should be sure to emphasize the relevance of their work for an international audience of scholars with differing academic backgrounds as well as intervention and policy implications. Articles should seek to raise important new questions, documenting dilemmas and paradoxes which merit concern and that advance our thinking about complex multi-dimensional processes and situations.

Abstracts are due by July 1, 2012. Papers will be due October 31, 2012. All submissions will be peerreviewed. For further information contact Dr. Andrew Golub.