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\"The 16-man Black Hawk Counter Narcotics Infantry Team served as an advisory and training unit for the Afghanistan National Army during a poppy eradication operation in Helmand province in 2008 and 2009. This book chronicles their mission in a little known theater of the Afghanistan War\"-- Provided by publisher.

Historians have long neglected Afghanistan's broader history when portraying the opium industry. But in Poppies, Politics, and Power , James Tharin Bradford rebalances the discourse, showing that it is not the past forty years of lawlessness that makes the opium industry what it is, but the sheer breadth of the twentieth-century Afghanistan experience. Rather than byproducts of a failed contemporary system, argues Bradford, drugs, especially opium, were critical components in the formation and failure of the Afghan state. In this history of drugs and drug control in Afghanistan, Bradford shows us how the country moved from licit supply of the global opium trade to one of the major suppliers of hashish and opium through changes in drug control policy shaped largely by the outside force of the United States. Poppies, Politics, and Power breaks the conventional modes of national histories that fail to fully encapsulate the global nature of the drug trade. By providing a global history of opium within the borders of Afghanistan, Bradford demonstrates that the country's drug trade and the government's position on that trade were shaped by the global illegal market and international efforts to suppress it. By weaving together this global history of the drug trade and drug policy with the formation of the Afghan state and issues within Afghan political culture, Bradford completely recasts the current Afghan, and global, drug trade.

Fluctuations in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan have long been closely associated with perceptions of state power, such as after the Taliban imposed an almost countrywide ban in 2000-1. The international community’s subsequent attempts to ban opium poppy cultivation became intimately linked with its state-building project, and rising levels of cultivation were often cited as evidence of failure by those international donors who spearheaded stabilization and development in opium-growing provinces like Helmand, Nangarhar and Kandahar. Mansfield examines why drug control - particularly opium bans - have been imposed in Afghanistan; he documents the actors involved; and scrutinizes how prohibition served quite divergent and sometimes competing interests. Drawing on almost two decades of fieldwork in rural areas, his book charts how these bans impacted on farming communities, how prohibition endured in some areas accompanied by improvements in welfare and stable political settlements, while in others opium production bans undermined livelihoods and destabilized the political order, fueling violence and rural rebellion. Above all this book challenges how we have come to understand political power in rural Afghanistan. Far from being the passive recipients of acts of violence by state and non-state actors, Mansfield highlights the role that rural communities have played in shaping the political terrain, including establishing the conditions under which they could persist with opium production.

Argues that Afghanistan's precarious teeter on the edge of collapse is attributed to the minimalist approach characterizing the international community's intervention since the fall of the Taliban. The importance of security for an Afghani government that must do without substantial foreign assistance is stressed. Attention is given to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force conducting peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan & Pakistani support for the insurgency. A lack of economic assistance is seen to have undermined efforts to defeat the ongoing insurgency; although donors have pledged billions, an absence of implementation has fueled the insurgency as well as the narco-economy. In addition, the government's lack of legitimacy enables the insurgency. It is argued that the Afghanistan Compact, which sets benchmarks & responsibilities for security, governance, & economic development, is the last best chance to achieve sustainable structures in Afghanistan. Preventing Afghanistan from falling into chaos requires that the US & other donors recognize (1) NATO forces are necessary but not sufficient; (2) governance & economic development cannot be subordinated to security; (3) a war on drugs must be avoided; (4) international efforts to establish the rule of war must be redoubled; & (5) greater diplomatic efforts must be made to convince Pakistan to withdraw support for the Taliban. D. Edelman

In the wake of the Taliban nightmare, Afghanistan must tackle serious problems before it can emerge as a confident, independent nation. Security in this battered state continues to deteriorate; suicide bombings, convoy ambushes, and insurgent attacks are all too common. Effective state building will depend upon eliminating the national security crisis and enhancing the rule of law. This book offers a blueprint for moving the embattled nation toward greater democracy and prosperity. Robert Rotberg and his colleagues argue that the future success of state building in Afghanistan depends on lessening its dependence on opium and enhancing its economic status. Many of Afghanistan's security problems are related to poppy growing, opium and heroin production, and drug trafficking. Building a New Afghanistan suggests controversial new alternatives to immediate eradication, which is foolish and counter-productive. These options include monetary incentives for growing wheat, a viable local crop. Greater wheat production would feed hungry Afghans while reducing narco-trafficking and the terror that comes with it. Integrating this land-locked country into the Central Asia or greater Eurasia economy would open up trading partnerships with its northern and western neighbors as well as with Pakistan, India, and possibly China. Developing a sense of common purpose among citizens would benefit the economy and could help to unite the nation. Perhaps most important, bolstering better governance in Afghanistan is necessary in order to eliminate chaos and corruption and enact nationwide reforms. Fresh and insightful, Building a New Afghanistan shows what the country's leadership and the international community should do to resolve dangerous issues and bolster a still fragile state. Contributors include Cindy Fazey (University of Liverpool), Ali Jalali (former minister of the interior, Afghanistan, and National Defense University), Hekmat Karzai (Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Afghanistan, and Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Singapore), Alistair J. McKechnie (World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan), Paula Newburg (Skidmore College), and S. Frederick Starr (Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University).

\"For years, the nation of Afghanistan has been locked in a struggle against an Islamist group called the Taliban. This group continues to take over territory in Afghanistan. Because of this, President Obama has given up his plans to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. The Taliban says it is against all drugs and alcohol. But much of its funding comes from the sale of opium. Opium is used to make medicinal painkillers like morphine. But it is also used in illegal drugs like heroin. These drugs come from the flowers called poppies. Most of the opium used to make illegal drugs in the world come from Afghanistan's poppies.\" (NewsCurrents Read to Know) Read more about growing crocus flowers in Afghanistan. Harvesting saffron is described.

\"Prohibition has failed--again. Instead of treating the demand for illegal drugs as a market, and addicts as patients, policymakers the world over have boosted the profits of drug lords and fostered narcostates that would frighten Al Capone. Finally, a smarter drug control regime that values reality over rhetoric is rising to replace the 'war' on drugs.\" (Foreign Policy) In this article, Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, argues that the war on drugs cannot be won and contends that drug legalization may be the best approach to solving the global drug problem.