Week 4: Beginning the Research Process
Hi everyone! It’s week 4, and I’ve already been away from the US for nearly a month!
This is my final week in Singapore, an absolutely wonderful country, and this Thursday I’ll be travelling to Hong Kong, & mainland China, before finally making my way back to the US in around 2 weeks. While in Singapore I have looked a lot into Singaporean perspectives, and I’m excited to incorporate sources I’ve found in Singapore into my final research.
For my travel related fact, I wanted to bring attention to the fact that Southeast Asia has been the fastest growing meth market in the world. Not only that, but criminal syndicates (many from Myanmar) also have been cutting the costs of synthetic drugs by using “non-controlled” chemicals, a deadly combination of lower prices, higher purity, and higher risk to the end user. Unlike in Colombia (where the cartels built their operations in a single nation), syndicates here in Southeast Asia have also used gaps in border security and differing regulatory environments to quickly incorporate multiple nations into their supply chains.
As for this week, as I’ve talked a lot about the background history and causes of the drug trade, so today I’ll focus on my actual research process. While more boring and less interesting than talking about drug cartels or Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos, I hope it gives you some understanding of how my research will unfold, especially with my unique independent approach (meaning I’m not working with any specific site placement). Next week, we’ll return with a deeper examination of how drug syndicates actually operate from top to bottom.
My final research paper uses what’s called a historical-comparative case study, which as the name implies will be focused on making a comparison of the history behind the drug organizations in modern day Myanmar vs those in 1970/80s Colombia. The case study aspect means I’ll be primarily using existing sources in order to find trends, similarities, or key differences to produce my own research. As Northwestern University says, my method is “causal analysis, an emphasis on temporally oriented analysis, and the use of systematic, case-based comparative research.” My final paper will be a detailed comparative analysis of these drug organizations in both Myanmar and Colombia at certain points in history. I have already begun looking at their backgrounds, organization, operations, and all the factors that have allowed them to be so successful as well as dangerous.
By approaching this research as an independent project, I have a lot more freedom to plot what I want to research, and as I get more sources my key topics/comparative variables have kept changing. And while I might not get the unique site placement of working in a drug cartel or participating in the drug trade, I’m quite alright staying far away from the current situation in Myanmar. It also means I have a lot more time to focus on reading sources and placing them into my research. Hopefully, even without an internship, my project is still interesting to all for you.
Sorry for the boring post this week! I just want to get everyone familiarized with what I’m actually doing as I move beyond the historical context and into the root of my actual research. As promised, next week will be something a bit more interesting.
See you next week (this time from Sichuan, China)!
Yusof, Zaihan Mohamed. “Concerns grow as gangs in Myanmar increase production and slash prices of synthetic drugs.” The Strait Times, January 6, 2025, https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/concerns-grow-as-gangs-in-myanmar-increase-production-and-slash-prices-of-synthetic-drugs
Northwestern Department of Political Science. “Comparative Historical Analysis.” Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, https://polisci.northwestern.edu/research/subfield-specialties/comparative-historical-studies.html#:~:text=Comparative%2Dhistorical%20analysis%20(CHA),of%20methodological%20and%20theoretical%20tools
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