War, Drugs, and Money: The Opium Trade in Afghanistan

Abstract

The concentration of this thesis is an examination of the various properties that exist among Afghanistan’s social institutions, local farmers, terrorist organizations, international institutions, and the global demand for opium and heroin. Principally, the focus herein is on the corrupt economic relations between international institutions/groups and Afghanistan’s domestic social structures/groups to identify the winners and losers in the opium trade. By identifying patterns of corruption, revolutionized economic regulations may be developed to potentially limit corruption and the opium trade’s complexity and adaptability within Afghanistan. By examining the resiliency of the opium trade policymakers may discover elements within this illicit complex adaptive economy which apply to licit economies to make them more resilient to external shocks.