SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Collection of guideline interviews carried out as part of the GCRF Drugs and (dis)order project along two drug trafficking routes in the borderlands of Nangarhar and Nimroz, Afghanistan (grant ES/P011543/1). The purpose of the interviews was to investigate two drug trading routes in the project's study areas from start to finish: the opium trading routes from Shirzad in Nangarhar to Pakistan, and the opium and crystal meth trading route from Bakwa and Khashrod in Nimroz to Iran. The traded commodity is followed along the trade route and the role of various actors is assessed, including the organisations they form, the formal and informal institutions that constrain them along the route and how this governance environment of the trading route keeps defining the value and risks of the commodity along the way. A special focus is on the roles of and functions provided by commanders of armed groups along the trading route, specifically in terms of brokerage functions provided between farmers, traders and political patrons (governmental or Taliban). Face-to-face interviews using question lists were carried out by the Organization for Sustainable Development and Research (OSDR) with 50 people in Nangarhar and 40 in Nimroz.