Narcotics & counternarcotics measures in Afghanistan

52 p.Narcotics in Afghanistan has been a serious issue for both the people of Afghanistan and the International Community. Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of opiate-based narcotics for the last two decades. Its record-setting production accounted for 92% of global output in 2006 and 93% in 2007. In addition to posing serious health and social problems in Afghanistan and globally, narcotics in Afghanistan has turned into an important dimension of Afghan political conflicts for over three decades now. Over the years, the Afghan political conflicts and the narcotics industry have formed relationship and continued to reinforce each other. For example, poppy cultivation and opium trade have become a major funding source for the Taliban insurgency against the NATO-led ISAF forces and the Afghan government after the U.S-led intervention in Afghanistan in 2001. They (poppy cultivation and opium trade) have played a major role in destabilizing the country and creating obstacles for the progress of Afghanistan and ISAF's mission against the Taliban insurgency. The counternarcotics measures undertaken by the Afghan government and the ISAF forces have failed to yield any breakthrough progress. This thesis analyzes why counternarcotics measures specifically the U.S-Afghan counternarcotics strategy failed to dismantle the narcotics industry in Afghanistan. It discusses the linkages between narcotics and Afghan political conflicts especially the Taliban insurgency, analyzes the implementation of U.S-Afghan counternarcotics strategy and explains the elements that led to its failures. The study then comes up with recommendations that would better address the problem of narcotics in Afghanistan.Master of Science (Strategic Studies