The Bowen HeraldThe Bowen Herald
  • News
  • Global News
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Russia
      • Ukraine
      • Turkey
      • Balkans
      • Nordic States
    • North America
    • Middle East
      • Saudi Arabia
      • UAE
      • Qatar
      • Israel
      • Lebanon
      • Oman
    • Africa
      • North Africa
        • Sahel
        • Egypt
      • Central Africa
      • South Africa
    • Asia
      • China
      • Sri Lanka
      • India
      • South Korea
      • North Korea
      • Bangladesh
      • Indonesia
      • Afghanistan
      • Pakistan
    • South America
  • Defence
  • Economy
  • Op-ed
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

Chinese Military Says US Ship ‘warned’ Away in South China Sea

March 30, 2023

Explosion at R.m. Palmer Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania Leaves 2 Dead, Others Missing and Injured

March 29, 2023

$18,353 US for M.-A., the Farewell Championship and More

March 29, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Chinese Military Says US Ship ‘warned’ Away in South China Sea
  • Explosion at R.m. Palmer Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania Leaves 2 Dead, Others Missing and Injured
  • $18,353 US for M.-A., the Farewell Championship and More
  • At Least 26 Dead After Tornado Causes Destruction Across Mississippi and Alabama
  • Scott Stinson: LIV Golf is Back for Another Season, but Did It Break Something That Didn’t Need Fixing?
  • ‘Totally Disgraced’: Trump Lashes Out at 2024 Rivals, Possible Indictment at Waco Campaign Rally
  • LIV Golf Tucson Final Payouts, Prize Money: Danny Lee Wins $4 Million
  • Canada’s emergency powers were justified.
Facebook Twitter Instagram
The Bowen HeraldThe Bowen Herald
  • News
  • Global News
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Russia
      • Ukraine
      • Turkey
      • Balkans
      • Nordic States
    • North America
    • Middle East
      • Saudi Arabia
      • UAE
      • Qatar
      • Israel
      • Lebanon
      • Oman
    • Africa
      • North Africa
        • Sahel
        • Egypt
      • Central Africa
      • South Africa
    • Asia
      • China
      • Sri Lanka
      • India
      • South Korea
      • North Korea
      • Bangladesh
      • Indonesia
      • Afghanistan
      • Pakistan
    • South America
  • Defence
  • Economy
  • Op-ed
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
The Bowen HeraldThe Bowen Herald
Home » The Narcostate
Featured

The Narcostate

By Adrian McdonaldJanuary 27, 2023Updated:January 27, 2023No Comments0 Views
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Tumblr Email
Stanley Greene/NOOR
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

By JOSHUA KUCERA

March/April 2014

Joshua Kucera is an Istanbul-based journalist.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Tajikistan, which shares a poorly guarded, 750-mile border with opium-rich Afghanistan, has become a major global drug-trafficking hub—in fact, more than 80 percent of Afghanistan’s heroin exports to Russia and Europe now pass through Tajik territory. Over the past decade, the United States, worried that the drug trade would soon be accompanied by all the other security problems that plague Afghanistan, has cooperated closely with Tajikistan’s government to help it stem the narcotics trade. Seems reasonable, right?

Unfortunately, that government is such a dubious partner that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid have done little to solve the country’s problems or stop the drug business—while helping to shore up its apparatus of repression. The United States has spent nearly $200 million since 2001 on security assistance for Tajikistan, increasingly focused on training and arming special military and police units. In 2012, for example, U.S. Special Forces trained 350 members of the State Committee of National Security, the successor agency of the Soviet-era KGB, including courses in marksmanship, close-quarters combat and weapons.

But while the GKNB is on the front lines of fighting drug traffickers, it is also the primary organ of political repression in the country—and many observers see it as more engaged in the latter. That includes the detention and torture of dozens of dissidents, according to human rights groups.

And besides, a substantial portion of the drugs that transit through Tajikistan—accounting for as much as 30 percent of the country’s GDP—do so through legal border crossings. No surprise, as the largest drug traffickers in Tajikistan are widely believed to be closely tied to high-level officials in the deeply corrupt Tajik government. The man thought to be founder of Tajikistan’s first major drug-trafficking group, for instance, was the lieutenant to the founder of the political party that brought President Emomali Rahmon to power in 1992. “In no other country of the world, except perhaps contemporary Afghanistan, can such a superimposition between drug traffickers and government officials be found,” a 2007 research paper concluded.

Officially, the United States is critical of the human rights record of Tajikistan’s security services, pointing to ineffective law enforcement compromised by drug lords’ “high-level connections with government officials and security agents.” But in reality, Washington is complicit in this vast network of illegal trading: The majority of the trafficking in Tajikistan is believed to occur on the country’s few good roads and bridges—one of which was built in 2009 with $35 million in U.S. Central Command funds. The U.S.-trained and -equipped GKNB targets not the big-time smugglers with ties to the government, but the smaller pushers who have to sneak across the Afghan border. In the most cynical interpretation, the United States is helping the government of Tajikistan take out its drug-trafficking competition.

Congressional restrictions limit military aid to Uzbekistan, the most repressive U.S. partner in Central Asia. But Tajikistan—with a human rights record that is nearly as bad—has been able to slide under the radar and become a major beneficiary of Pentagon largesse. And Tajikistan has benefited even though its strategic utility to the United States is relatively small compared with its Central Asian neighbors. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan host the lion’s share of overland U.S. military transit to Afghanistan (leaving Tajikistan as a backup supply route for the Uzbekistan route), and Kyrgyzstan hosts a U.S. Air Force base (at least until July).

Foreign Policy March/April 2014 Obamas World A I Special Report POLITICO Magazine Tajikistan Washington and the World
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram Email
Adrian Mcdonald

Related Posts

Chinese Military Says US Ship ‘warned’ Away in South China Sea

March 30, 2023

Explosion at R.m. Palmer Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania Leaves 2 Dead, Others Missing and Injured

March 29, 2023

$18,353 US for M.-A., the Farewell Championship and More

March 29, 2023
Demo
Top Posts

Republican and Democrat leaders urge Biden to add Nigeria to list of countries violating religious freedom

February 3, 202327

Kenes Rakishev and Monnet Group to build a new plant in Kazakhstan

January 13, 202325

Canada to send 4 combat-ready Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in the coming weeks

February 3, 20235

Why the US declined to send Ukraine long-range missiles, tanks

December 23, 20225
Don't Miss
China

Chinese Military Says US Ship ‘warned’ Away in South China Sea

By Darren LeonardMarch 30, 20230

PLA says the USS Milius’s intrusion into its territorial waters undermined regional peace and stability.…

Explosion at R.m. Palmer Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania Leaves 2 Dead, Others Missing and Injured

March 29, 2023

$18,353 US for M.-A., the Farewell Championship and More

March 29, 2023

At Least 26 Dead After Tornado Causes Destruction Across Mississippi and Alabama

March 28, 2023
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from SmartMag about art & design.

Demo
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact Us
  • Creative Commons
© 2023 The Bowen Herald

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.