Coercion, cash-crops and culture from insurgency to proto-state in Asia's opium belt

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08Jun_Merz.pdf (3.14 MB)
Authors
Merz, Andrew A.
Subjects
Afghanistan
Burma
Insurgency
Opium
Drugs
State-building
Golden Triangle
Golden Crescent
Proto-state
States-within-states
Taliban
UWSA
UWSP
Wa
Shan State
Ethno-nationalism
Pashtun
Pashtunistan
Advisors
Johnson, Thomas H.
Malley, Michael S.
Date of Issue
2008-06
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
This thesis is a comparative study of conflict and opium in the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle, focusing in particular on Afghanistan-Pakistan and Burma. It takes a state building approach to analyze the formation and composition of opiate-funded "proto-states" in the two regions, with case studies on the Taliban and the United Wa State Party. Historic, political, ethnic and cultural factors are explored in relation to each region and proto-state case. The basic argument is that opium and opiate trade provided capital for the formation of basic state-like entities that conduct all the basic statebuilding activities as defined in the literature. What are often called "insurgent groups" are actually armies of proto-states. What are often called "insurgencies" are actually conflicts between infant states in areas that never contained nation-states. This paradigm suggests an alternate method to study these two areas: a method that emphasizes history and anthropology to understand the basic motivations and attributes of the proto-state actors.
Type
Thesis
Description
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10945/4108
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
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NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
xiv, 103 p. : maps ;
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined
in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. As such, it is in the
public domain, and under the provisions of Title 17, United States
Code, Section 105, is not copyrighted in the U.S.
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