Chapter 3 continues…

The security of road transport, established by the Taleban, had made possible a flourishing smuggling business in consumer goods from Dubai (a free port), imported via either Iran or Turkmenistan and trucked across southern Afghanistan to Pakistan, complementing the other smuggling route via the port of Karachi. Goods for export to Afghanistan can transit through Pakistan duty-free under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA). Many of the goods imported under ATTA were sold illegally in Pakistan, largely by Afghan and Pakistani Pashtun truckers and traders.
The area of northeast Afghanistan controlled by late Ahmad Shah Massoud also produced opium, and a number of important north-bound export routes traversed it.

One can broadly divide the consequences of the Afghan conflict according to different categories of physical and infrastructural destruction, economic deceleration and regress, collapse of political structures and institutions, socio-cultural changes, massive human displacement and threat to human security. The basic focus of the chapter is to highlight the comprehensiveness of the destruction in Afghanistan through the different phases of conflict and to project the interconnectivity among these categories of consequences.

The chapter in conclusion shows that an action of destruction has a chain reaction and has spillovers leading to a vicious circle of uncertainty, chaos and conflict. The period of focus however remains 1978-2001, i.e. the high-intensity period, since an historical evaluation of the consequences of the previous phases of conflict would be too large and detailed for the purpose of analysis. However one of the themes of the thesis remains rooted in the historical nature of conflict in Afghanistan rather than identifying the Soviet intervention in 1978 as the beginning of conflict.

1. POLITICAL INSTABILITY AND LACK OF ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS

Prolonged conflict in Afghanistan is accompanied by rapid regime changes and political instability. Until the mid 20th century, Afghanistan was ruled by the absolute power of the king. Two constitutions were promulgated, in 1923 and 1931, both affirming the power of the monarchy. The constitution of 1964, provided for a constitutional monarchy based on the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial authorities

To be continued…