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THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE: Inside Southeast Asia's Drug Trade. By Ko-Lin Chin. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2009. xi, 280 pp. (Tables, maps.) US$22.50, paper. ISBN 978-0-801-44666-5.
In his latest book, Ko-Lin Chin provides a rare insight into drug production and trafficking in Southeast Asia. Despite the Golden Triangle being a pivotal force in the global drug trade, its inaccessibility means that it is rarely the focus of academic research. Not only does Ko-Lin Chin successfully negotiate this hidden world of northern Burma to do his field research, but his work is remarkable in placing its drug trade in a geopolitical context. His field research involves numerous interviews with people either involved in, or affected by, the drug trade, ranging from opium growers to state officials. He weaves together his research findings with a detailed historical account of the political and...