Overview

The United States' ignominious exit from Afghanistan in 2021 topped two decades of failure and devastation wrought by the war on terror. A long-running ""fight against migration"" has stoked chaos and rights abuses while pushing migrants onto more dangerous routes. For its part, the war on drugs has failed to dampen narcotics demand while fueling atrocities from Mexico to the Philippines. Why do such ""failing"" policies persist for so long? And why do politicians keep feeding the very crises they say they are combating? In Wreckonomics, Ruben Andersson and David Keen analyze why disastrous policies live on even when it has become apparent that they do not work. The perverse outcomes of the fights against terror, migration, and drugs are more than a blip or an anomaly. Rather, the proliferation of wars and pseudo-wars has become a dangerous political habit and an endless source of political advantage and profit. From combating crime to the war on drugs, from civil wars to global wars and even ""covid wars,"" chronic failure has been harnessed to the appearance of success. Over a wide variety of spheres, problems have persisted and worsened not so much despite the ""wars"" and ""fights"" waged against them as thanks to these floundering endeavors. Covering a range of cases around the world, Wreckonomics exposes and interrogates the incentive systems that allow destructive policies to flourish in the face of systemic failure--while offering strategies for tackling our addiction to waging war on everything.

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Ruben Andersson is the author of No Go World and Illegality, Inc., winner of the 2015 BBC Ethnography Award. He is a professor of social anthropology at the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. He has researched borders, migration and security. David Keen is the author of The Benefits of Famine and Useful Enemies, among other books, and winner of the Edgar Graham prize. He is a professor of conflict studies at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has researched civil wars, global wars, and disasters. David Keen is professor of conflict studies in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of The Benefits of Famine, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone, Endless War?, Complex Emergencies, Useful Enemies, and When Disasters Come Home. Colin Mace is an actor recently seen in the National Theatre's One Man, Two Guvnors. He starred in the critically acclaimed drama The Night Watch for the BBC, Shirley for BBC2, as well as several episodes of Eastenders. His theater credits include ""Ted Narracott"" in War Horse at the National Theatre and West End, as well as Cash at WYP, and The 39 Steps and The Odysee at the Lyric Hammersmith. Other television credits includes Peep Show, Abolition, The Bill, Down to Earth, and The Project.

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