The analysis indicates that drug law enforcement has had a crucial role in the evolution of law enforcement in the last 3 decades, both in the United States and in Europe. The integration and harmonization of European law and law enforcement to a great extent represented a form of Americanization. The United States experience demonstrates that after the proliferation of many competing agencies within a bureaucracy, the bureaucracy can be reformed, but only with great difficulty and over a period of time. Step by step integration through minor interventions is usually better than rapid transformation, because the change involves costs in money, efficiency, and morale. The United States experience also demonstrates the importance of a system of checks and balance. Although Europol is politically too controversial to become a European FBI, it might evolve in an important asset in efforts to address international crime if it can gain the confidence of national police forces. Footnotes