A Dangerous Peace? Drugs, Post-Conflict State Building and Horizontal Inequalities in Afghanistan

Abstract

This chapter examines the complex interactions between protracted conflict, ‘post-war’ peacebuilding and horizontal inequalities (HIs). It focuses on the pathways and mechanisms through which the opium economy and internationally supported counter-narcotics (CN) policies have reconfigured HIs, particularly inter-group and spatial divisions. Our findings, perhaps counter-intuitively, suggest that the war years contributed to a rebalancing of power relationships by empowering borderland regions and minority groups. The illicit economy, whilst frequently seen as predatory and anti-developmental, played an important social protection role and had some developmental outcomes. Conversely, ‘peace’ — brought in in the wake of the US invasion — has been characterized by new regional power asymmetries and intensified inequalities. International development and CN policies may have inadvertently contributed to this state of affairs. Therefore there is a need to rethink the linkages between post-conflict peacebuilding, CN policies and HIs and to develop new policies accordingly.1