War / Guerre | www.geopium.org

L’opium afghan: vingt ans de suprématie mondiale

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2013 / Drogues, enjeux internationaux.

Au moment où les troupes de l’OTAN préparent leur départ d’Afghanistan, prévu pour la fin de l’année 2014, le cinquième numéro de Drogues, enjeux internationaux est consacré à un état des lieux de la situation des opiacés dans ce pays. L’Afghanistan est en effet devenu en l’espace d’une trentaine d’années le premier producteur illicite d’opium au monde, mais aussi
probablement le premier producteur mondial d’une héroïne destinée pour une bonne part au
marché européen. La situation en Afghanistan, au-delà du « grand jeu » stratégique et sécuritaire des grandes puissances au cœur de la région disputée de l’Asie centrale, concerne
donc directement l’Europe, car l’héroïne demeure la substance illicite la plus problématique
en matière de santé publique.

Agricultural Drug Economies: Cause or Alternative to Intra-State Conflicts?

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2007 / Crime, Law and Social Change.

Through case studies selected among the world’s main drug-producer countries and regions (Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Morocco, Peru, and West Africa) this paper depicts the global scene in order to improve understanding of how agricultural illicit drug economies may foster the emergence of intra-state conflicts, help prolong intra-state conflicts or, conversely, prevent some crises. The paper thereby examines the complex connections between agricultural illicit drug production and intra-state conflict in the all-important context of underdevelopment and globalisation.

Finding an Alternative to Illicit Opium Production in Afghanistan, and Elsewhere

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2011 / International Journal of Environmental Studies.

Prohibition attempts have failed for over a century, as the case of Afghanistan shows. There are many and complex reasons for this. Illicit opium production has benefited from synergies between war economies and drug economies, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It has also thrived on economic underdevelopment and poverty. Part of the problem is that illicit opium production largely outlives war and that economic development can only occur in countries and regions where peace prevails. What is needed to reduce poppy cultivation is broad and equitable economic development. Ignoring the causes of opium production or making them worse by increasing poverty through forced eradication, will compromise antidrug policies and stabilisation efforts.

Drug Trafficking

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2007 / The Encyclopedia of the Cold War.

The Cold War played a direct and prominent role in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs. Indeed, the financing of many anti-Communist covert operations, such as those led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), resorted to the drug economy of various proxy states in which drug trafficking was often condoned and even encouraged. Specific historical cases illustrate how the anti-Communist agenda of the CIA played a decisive role in spurring the global illicit drug trade. These include the French Connection and the role of the Corsican mafia against Communists both in France and in Southeast Asia (Laos and Vietnam), the propping up of the defeated Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang) in northern Burma, the Islamic Mujahideen resistance in Afghanistan, and the Contras in Nicaragua.

Drugs and the Financing of Terrorism

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / Terrorism Monitor / 2004.

The fact that the very term "narco-terrorism" appears to be too vague and counterproductive in terms of addressing either drug trafficking or terrorism - since it brings very different actors into too broad a category - has not kept most observers and politicians from resorting extensively to such a notion. Still, it is worthwhile examining the extent to which terrorism is funded by the illicit drug economy, if only to highlight the minimal role this plays in al-Qaeda's finances.

Drogues illicites, territoire et conflits en Afghanistan et en Birmanie

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy / 2004 / Hérodote.

Le Triangle d’Or (Birmanie, Laos, Thaïlande) et le Croissant d’Or (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan), les deux principaux espaces de production illicite d’opium en Asie et dans le monde, sont marqués par une importante superposition d’ensembles spatiaux qui, à travers des géohistoires complexes, leur ont légués autant de discontinuités, de fronts et de frontières. Dans le contexte des économies de guerre qui sont les leurs, où du nerf de la guerre l’opium en devient l’enjeu, les deux espaces se révèlent être soumis à des processus de territorialisation qui se font par, pour et même contre l’opium. Ils correspondent donc davantage à des mosaïques territoriales aux géométries et limites variables qu’à des territoires bien définis et à part entière.