Losing Ground
Drug Control and War in Afghanistan
This Drugs & Conflict briefing focuses on opium elimination efforts and the controversy about involving military forces in anti-drugs operations in Afghanistan.
The worsening armed conflict and the all-time record opium production in Afghanistan have caused a wave of panic. We are losing ground. Calls are being made for robust military action by NATO forces to destroy the opium industry in southern Afghanistan. But intensifying a war on drugs in Afghanistan now would further fuel the conflict, which is the last thing that the country needs.
This Drugs & Conflict briefing focuses on opium elimination efforts and the controversy about involving military forces in anti-drugs operations in Afghanistan. It also provides background on the Afghan drug control strategy, its new counter-narcotics law, and the role of Afghanistan within the global opiates market.
Silver bullets do not exist. Peace building, reconstruction and reducing the dependence on the opium economy will be long-term processes. Their success or otherwise will depend on improving the security situation, bringing about more stable governance and the rule of law, and strengthening the legal economy to provide alternative livelihood options.
A first line to draw is to keep NATO forces out of drug control operations. There is also a moral, political and economic case for having alternative livelihoods in place before commencing eradication. Afghanistan is coming under added pressure as a result of persistent drug control dogmas, but these need to be challenged if the further spread of insecurity and undermining of reconstruction efforts is to be avoided.
Press release: Eradication could undermine Afghanistan reconstruction, new study warns December 5, 2006
Pers bericht (Dutch): Nederlandse troepen moeten zich ver van drugsbestrijding houden, waarschuwt een nieuw rapport 5 december 2006
More information: Press briefing
Abstract in Italian: Le forze Nato e la guerra alla droga di Cristian Rivier, Fuoriluogo, gennaio 2007.
Nella palude: Le strategie di controllo della droga e la guerra in Afghanistan (2.5 MB, Italian version)
About the authors
Martin Jelsma
Martin Jelsma is a political scientist who has specialised in Latin America and international drugs policy. In 2005, he received the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship, which stated that Jelsma "is increasingly recognized as one of, if not the, outstanding strategists in terms of how international institutions deal with drugs and drug policy."
In 1995 he initiated and has since co-oordinated TNI's Drugs & Democracy Programme which focuses on drugs and conflict studies with a focus on the Andean/Amazon region, Burma/Myanmar and Afghanistan, and on the analysis and dialogues around international drug policy making processes (with a special focus on the UN drug control system). Martin is a regular speaker at international policy conferences and advises various NGOs and government officials on developments in the drugs field. He is co-editor of the TNI Drugs & Conflict debate papers and the Drug Policy Briefing series.
Tom Kramer
Tom Kramer (1968) is a political scientist and with over 15-years of working experience on Burma and its border regions, which he has visited regularly since 1993.
His work focuses on developing a better understanding of the drugs market in the region as a whole, the relationship between production and consumption, and alternative development (AD). Together with the Drugs and Democracy Programme, Kramer has created a regional network of local researchers, and is also carrying out advocacy towards policy makers in the region for more sustainable and human drug policies.
Since 2005 Kramer also works on Afghanistan, with a focus onthe relationship between drugs & conflict, and the involvement of western security forces in counter narcotic activities. Apart from his work for TNI, he is also a writer and freelance consultant, specializing on ethnic conflict and civil society in Burma. He has carried out field research and written reports for a wide range of international NGOs, institutes and UN organisations.
Recent publications from Drugs and Democracy
De wankelende ‘Weense consensus’ over drugsbeleidNederland is met zijn drugsbeleid in de achterhoede terecht gekomen. Zo zijn Uruguay en de Amerikaanse staten Washington en Colorado, met hun besluit de cannabismarkt van teelt tot gebruik te legaliseren, Nederland voorbijgestreefd. |
Between Reality and AbstractionAt the International Conference on Alternative Development (ICAD), held 15-16 November 2012 in Lima, the Peruvian Government continued to insist on the relevance of “Alternative Development (AD),” with particular emphasis on the so-called San Martín “miracle” or “model.” |
The illicit drugs market in the Colombian agrarian contextThe distribution of land and its unjust use are the major causes of violence in Colombia. For this reason land issues are the starting point of current peace talks between the Santos government and the FARC guerrillas |
Bogotá’s medical care centres for drug addictsThe opening in September 2012 of the first centre for drug addicts in Bogota is a welcome first step towards more humane and effective drug policies in Colombia’s capital city, but to be effective needs to be integrated into proper overall drugs strategy. |
