Leiden University Student Repository

Boogaard, Sam van den (2026)

We shall not sleep, where poppies blow: Afghanistan’s development into a narco-state, 1989-1996

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This thesis analyses Afghanistan’s development into the premier producer of opium worldwide. An absence of legitimacy, bureaucracy and a monopoly on violence, as well as the presence of warlords and mujahideen fighting the Soviets, facilitated the development of Afghanistan into a narco-state between 1989-1996. The failed state of Afghanistan, through the rise of non-state actors and the influx of foreign aid, has developed the Afghan state from a nearly drug-free nation to the world’s top producer of heroin, among other drugs The failure of the Afghan state between 1989 and 1996, expressed in the absence of the state and the lack of state power, caused an increase in opium production. tThis could indeed have aided Afghanistan’s development into a narco-state. This is visible through the increase in cultivation of and trade in opium in Afghanistan between 1989 and 1996. Warlords used foreign aid to buy weapons and further control opium-producing territories. They supplanted the...Show moreThis thesis analyses Afghanistan’s development into the premier producer of opium worldwide. An absence of legitimacy, bureaucracy and a monopoly on violence, as well as the presence of warlords and mujahideen fighting the Soviets, facilitated the development of Afghanistan into a narco-state between 1989-1996. The failed state of Afghanistan, through the rise of non-state actors and the influx of foreign aid, has developed the Afghan state from a nearly drug-free nation to the world’s top producer of heroin, among other drugs The failure of the Afghan state between 1989 and 1996, expressed in the absence of the state and the lack of state power, caused an increase in opium production. tThis could indeed have aided Afghanistan’s development into a narco-state. This is visible through the increase in cultivation of and trade in opium in Afghanistan between 1989 and 1996. Warlords used foreign aid to buy weapons and further control opium-producing territories. They supplanted the Afghan state. The foreign aid pipeline was also used to smuggle drugs out of the country.Show less

heroin, narcostate, Afghanistan, Soviet-Afghan War

Author

Boogaard, Sam van den

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Global Political Economy

Supervisors

Rizal Shidiq

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en