Rethinking Illicit Economies in Opium and Cocaine

This book reconstructs and compares socioeconomic contexts, criminal careers, and changes in farmgate prices of illicit coca and opium poppy crops in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Bolivia.The book challenges commonly held assumptions and casts new light on how relationships of conflict and accommodation are arranged and re-arranged in fluid, ever-changing contexts, producing often paradoxical outcomes.It then suggests policy reforms and alternative approaches to drug policy, development aid, and peacebuilding work.Researchers and students across development, peacebuilding, illicit economies, and conflict studies will find this book an important source of original research and analysis. It will also be useful for politicians, commentators and public officials considering what to do differently in tackling illicit drug economies.