Ebook: The War on Drugs and Anglo-American Relations: Lessons from Afghanistan, 2001-2011

Reveals the inside story of the formulation and implementation of the US's and UK's counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2020

• Covers the key moments of the counter-narcotics campaign
• Details the development of counter-narcotics policies from a British perspective: significant given Britain's role as G8 lead nation on counter-narcotics
• Draws on 74 interviews with former senior government, intergovernmental, military and diplomatic officials who were based in London, Washington and Kabul

Through interviews with key policy practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic, this study reveals the complex picture of counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan. It highlights the key points of cooperation and contention, and details the often contradictory and competitive objectives of the overall war effort in Afghanistan.

Western counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan failed dismally after opium poppy cultivation surged to unprecedented levels. The Anglo-American partnership at the centre of this battleground was divided by competing and opposing views of how to address the opium problem, which troubled the well-established Anglo-American relationship.