Aileen Teague

Postdoctoral Fellow in International and Public Affairs

Biography 

Aileen Teague is a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Vanderbilt University in 2018. Aileen’s research examines the effects of United States drug policies and policing efforts on 1970s Mexican politics and society. Born in Colon, Panama, Aileen travelled the world as part of a military family, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. She has taught classes in U.S. history, as well as thematic courses addressing issues such as interventionism, drug enforcement, national security, and addiction in U.S. culture. Aileen enjoys providing a voice on how history has shaped current social and political issues. Her opinion pieces have appeared in History News Network, The Global Intelligence, and Time magazine.

Research

Aileen’s research interests focus broadly on questions of interventionism, militarization, and incorporating top-down and bottom-up perspectives to understand the effects of Unites States policies on foreign societies. Aileen is currently drafting a book manuscript, which is based on her dissertation, Americanizing Mexican Drug Enforcement: The War on Drugs in Mexican Politics and Society, 1964–1982. The study incorporates a transnational approach, using archival sources from Mexico and the United States to explore the origins of bilateral drug enforcement measures and their relationship to Mexican state formation and U.S. domestic drug issues. Aileen’s project also sheds new light on how local histories of political instability shaped the Mexican government’s response to the U.S. war on drugs. Her research has received support from organizations, including Fulbright, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and most recently, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, where she served as a visiting fellow.

Teaching

The U.S. War on Drugs: From History to Policymaking and Beyond (Spring 2019)