Sowing Instability

"It is an accepted axiom of the modern age that distance no longer matters. Sectarian carnage can sway stock markets on the other side of the planet. Anarchic cities that host open-air arms bazaars imperil the security of the world’s superpower. A hermit leader’s erratic behavior not only makes life miserable for the impoverished millions he rules but also upends the world’s nuclear nonproliferation regime. The threats of weak states, in other words, ripple far beyond their borders and endanger the development and security of nations that are their political and economic opposites."

In publishing the third annual Failed States Index, Foreign Policy magazine and The Fund for Peace assert that the world's weakest states aren't just a danger to themselves, but threaten the progress and stability of countries half a world away.

As if to prove the point, the latest World Drug Report confirms how events on the other side of our global village are devastating lives on our own doorsteps. We already knew that last year's bumper opium crop in Afghanistan meant the country had become the source of 92% of the world's supply of opium. We now learn that opium cultivation in the country involves one in eight (12.6%) of the population and that 50% of the heroin on Britain's streets comes from Helmand alone, the province supposedly under British control.

Afghanistan's record poppy yield and drug trafficking routes, fuelled by underground heroin factories, bring crime, addiction, and HIV/AIDS in their wake. The industry finances the activities of the Taleban, against whom the 7,700 troops we have deployed in the country are fighting. Britain's new ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, already believes we could be heavily involved in Afghanistan for decades to come. Once again, if we are to have any hope of bringing stability to the region, we must give serious consideration to the Conservatives' suggestion to license the Afghan opium poppy crop.