Kenney has written an exciting, informative, and useful book. He examines the relationship between organizational structures and organizational learning in the context of organizations that engage in and fight against terrorism and drug smuggling. The insight he provides about the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations provides the basis for new ways of thinking about policy in these important domains. The book is a real treat to read.
-Martha S. Feldman, University of California, Irvine
Kenney has written an exciting, informative, and practically useful book. He uses organization theoretic concepts to explore and illuminate rich empirical data and provide insights relevant to important policy issues. This is a rare combination reminiscent of Diane Vaughan's The Challenger Launch Decision and Lynn Eden's Whole World on Fire. Specifically, Kenney examines the relationship between organizational structures and organizational learning in the context of organizations that engage in and fight against terrorism and drug smuggling. The insight he provides about the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations provides the basis for new ways of thinking about policy in these important domains. The book is a real treat to read.
-Martha S. Feldman, University of California, Irvine
This is an impressive book. It applies organizational theory to understand the dynamic relationships within two little-understood sets of complex, mutually dependent enterprises. The first set pairs narcs and narcos (or Colombian drug trafficking cartels and U.S. and Colombian drug enforcement organization). The second set looks at terrorist organizations, particularly Al Queda and U.S. and international counter-terror organizations. Kenney shows how drug cartels and terrorist organizations continually adapt to the counter-narcotics measures and anti-terrorist forces. Competitive adaptation means that apparent success by law enforcement agencies or others is generally short-lived. The conceptual framework is very useful-indeed penetrating and necessary-for all current and future scholars and policy makers concerned with these issues.
-Marc Chernick, Georgetown University
The United States has struggled to win its wars on drugs and terror. Why do our adversaries always seem to be one step ahead? Michael Kenney provides an original and provocative answer to the question of why the ability of drug cartels and terrorist groups to learn, adapt, and move quickly surpasses ours. Our technical and military advantages are not enough in a contest that rewards agility and information superiority. This book is an important contribution to our understanding not just of the adversary but of the limitations of our response.
-Martha Crenshaw, Wesleyan University
Kenney has written a remarkable and highly readable book that will be of interest to a wide ranging audience . . . it will be useful to sociologists, industrial and organizational scholars, and others who want to better understand the particulars of illicit networks, how they are organized, how they achieve reliability, and how and why they are able to persist. It also will be useful to public management scholars and policy-makers who are interested in better understanding their own practices and how they can be more successful in creating reliable outcomes.
-Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, International Public Management Journal
From Pablo to Osama is a well-researched and well-organized book that is written in clear, expressive language. It will be of interest to practitioners and scholars alike. . . . Kenney has made an important contribution to the literature analyzing the organization and operation of illicit networks and the governmental structures established to protect society from them.
-Melvyn Levitsky, International Studies Review
Kenney's study is riveting, important, and an original contribution that is a must-read for those attempting to understand the structure and identity of criminal networks engaged in terrorism and transnational organized crime. It provides novel insight into why law enforcement will keep losing until they are able to learn and openly reflect on their activities in the same way that criminal networks do.
-Sara Davies, International Affairs
Kenney provides rich details and tells great stories, tying them all together with enough theory and policy relevance to keep the reader interested.
-J.S. Holmes, Choice
Kenney's From Pablo to Osama is among the most powerful books ever published on the topic of drug trafficking. . . . This book is extraordinary. For those perhaps expecting technical network analysis and arid theory, this book is a relief: it is beautifully and clearly written, so that even a layman (or policeman) could easily grasp its fine-tuned integration of theory and evidence. This is real-life social science. It brings balanced perspectives to topics usually clouded by superficial sensationalism.
-Paul Gootenberg, Qualitative Sociology
This is the most important theoretical book on terrorism published in the last year. The theory is informed, in an inductive way, by intensive field research with actual drug traffickers, who went beyond (and refuted) conventional wisdom about drug trafficking.
-Marc Sageman, Terrorism and Political Violence
In a little-known but important work, From Pablo to Osama, Michael Kenney, an American academic, brilliantly demonstrates this. Kenney, a fluent Spanish speaker, worked on Colombian drug networks for a decade before applying his research to Islamic militants. Kenney's conclusions are interesting and important.
-Jason Burke, Guardian
