It’s That Difficult of a Terrain”
Opium, Development, and Territoriality in US-Afghan Relations, 1940s–1970s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12970920 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Weimer, D R Weimer (0000-0003-1264-3612, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 113-144 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Social History of Alcohol Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0887-2783 • E-ISSN: 2640-7329 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/702695 |
| OpenAlex | W2922181866 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 7 |
Considerations of the natural environment permeate drug policy formulation, drug crop production, and trafficking. Cultivators, traffickers, and drug control authorities seek to mold nature to further their respective ends, even as they are also limited by the natural world. Given the environmental realities of cultivating, trafficking, and controlling illegal drugs, more attention to this fact is needed in drug history scholarship. Examining United Nations– and United States–led efforts at poppy replacement in Afghanistan in 1958, 1972, and 1977—and framing opium production and drug control as part of natural resource development in Afghanistan—this article unites strands of scholarship from environmental, foreign relations, and drug history. These episodes of development-as-drug-control demonstrate that throughout the history of economic development in the name of poppy reduction in Afghanistan, Western officials could not redirect the economic and environmental conditions structuring poppy farmers’ lives. While much attention has been paid to Afghan opium after the 1979 Soviet invasion, this lesser-known story of drug control proves instructive for understanding present failures
Afghan · Development economics · Drug control · Economics · Framing (construction · Geography · Natural resource · Opium · Opium Poppy · Political science · Scholarship · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2022 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |