A State Built on Sand : How Opium Undermined Afghanistan.

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. Establishing the Context -- Introduction -- Rationale -- Hypothesis and Questions -- Methodology -- Structure -- 2. Power, Corruption and Drug Crop Cultivation -- Introduction -- Behaving Like a State: Drug Control and Statebuilding -- Fulfilling International Drug Control Obligations in Countries with Limited or Contested Domestic Sovereignty -- Conclusion -- 3. Rural Livelihoods Perspectives on Drug Crop Production -- Introduction -- Assessing Changes in Patterns of Drug Crop Cultivation from Afar: The Limits of the Current Literature -- Reshaping our Understanding of Drug Crop Cultivation and Those Who Cultivate Drug Crops -- Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to Improve Understanding of Drug Crop Cultivation and Efforts to Ban It -- Conclusion -- 4. Research Methodology -- Introduction -- Focusing the Research -- The Research Design -- Collecting Primary Data -- Adapting to the Security Environment: Methodological and Ethical Considerations -- Conclusion -- 5. An Historical Overview: Statebuilding and Drug Production in Afghanistan -- Introduction -- Statebuilding in Afghanistan -- Opium Production, Policy and Efforts at Control -- Conclusion -- 6. Repositioning a Pariah Regime-The Taliban Ban of 2000/01 -- Introduction -- Taking the Moral High Ground -- The Ball is in Your Court: Negotiating with the International Community -- Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't -- A Movement, Not a Monolith -- Conclusion -- 7. Nangarhar-A Model Province -- Introduction -- The Provincial Context -- Banning Opium in Nangarhar -- Conclusion -- 8. The Ban Unravels -- Introduction -- Politics at the Centre: The Return of the Nangarhari Elite.

Beyond the Politics of Personalities: An Analysis of the Changing Political and Economic Circumstances of Rural Constituents -- Conclusion -- 9. The Helmand Food Zone-A Technocratic Response to a Complex Phenomenon -- Introduction -- The Provincial Context -- Banning Opium in the Canal Command Area: The Establishment of the Helmand Food Zone -- Conclusion -- 10. Shifting Sands: Movements in Political Geography and Poppy Cultivation -- Introduction -- The Changing Face of Central Helmand -- Livelihood Trajectories in Central Helmand -- Conclusion -- 11. Conclusion -- Introduction -- Projecting the Appearance of Power: the Problematic Relationship Between Prohibition and Statebuilding -- Understanding the Diffuse Nature of Political Power in Rural Space -- The Rural Population as Political Actors -- Distorting the Political Marketplace -- Bans as Temporary Coalitions of Interest -- Contribution to Policy -- Contribution to Theory -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Mansfield's book examines why drug control - particularly opium bans - have been imposed in Afghanistan; he documents the actors involved; and he scrutinizes how prohibition served divergent and competing interests.Above all this book challenges how we have come to understand political power in rural Afghanistan.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.