International drug policy constellations: exploring the role of power and morality in international drug policy debates

Background: At national level, it is possible to identify multiple competing constellations of policy actors and policy positions that come together around shared ethico-political bases. The outcome of policy debates can be explained by examining the forms of power that these constellations deploy (Stevens, 2024). It should also be possible and useful to do this for the international level of drug policy making.

Aim: To identify international constellations of policy actors and positions and explore how this helps explain the outcomes of international policy discussions.

Methods: This paper uses discourse analysis of international policy documents and debates at the 2024 Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to inform two-mode social network analysis of the ties between policy actors (individuals and organisations) and policy positions expressed at the CND. This will be compared to existing frameworks for the analysis of the distribution of moral values across countries (e.g. the World Values Survey Cultural Map).

Findings: The presentation will show sociograms which display the most prominent policy constellations in international discussions. It will show the links between these policy constellations and their ethico-political bases. It will use these links to suggest a provisional and critical explanation of the outcomes of policy discussions at the 2024 CND.