The Afghan Threat: A Legal Trade for Afghanistan, Devastating for the World

Abstract

Afghanistan has known decades of war, occupation, and hardship, which together with the absence of a stable central government led to the development of illicit trades. The Afghan Drug trade as such has become the largest and most profitable trade in Afghanistan and has become completely embedded in Afghan society. Especially after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan is when the trade started to take off and developed itself as a Transnational Criminal Organization. This study examines how the Soviet occupation influenced the development of the Afghan Drug trade. What this study also argues is that the Taliban, who were the only ones successful in actively prohibiting the production of opiates in Afghanistan, actually used the drug trade to their own benefit by utilizing the profits for their war chest. By researching this aspect, this work wants to find out what sort of implications the development of the Afghan Drug trade has had for international security. Over all, this study argues that the Afghan Drug trade rose after the withdrawal of Soviet forces due to the devastation that the Soviet Union caused whilst trying to expel opposing forces from Afghanistan combined with the lack of a central government and the rise of the Taliban as a usurper of the illicit trade.