An Afghan worker prepares to burn a pile of illegal narcotics in the outskirts of Jalalabad December 19, 2012 (REUTERS/Parwiz).

Book Chapter

Counterinsurgency, Counternarcotics, and Illicit Economies in Afghanistan: Lessons for State-Building

April 2013, Vanda Felbab-Brown

Vanda Felbab-Brown analyzes U.S. counternarcotics policies in Afghanistan since 2001, how the Obama administration broke with the dominant counternarcotics framework, and the potentially problematic side effects of counternarcotics success.