On 28 May the Programme hosted an off-the record meeting on Afghan counter-narcotics (CN) in partnership with Dr David Bewley-Taylor of Swansea University bringing together civil servants, policy-makers, diplomats, researchers and civil society, including some from Afghanistan. The Colloquium was planned in response to the growing need for sophisticated discussion concerning the formulation and operationalization of CN policy in Afghanistan during both the Transition period to 2014 and what the recent Bonn Conference termed the Transformation years thereafter. Although the issue appears to have largely dropped off the political agenda in the West, the security implications (political, economic, military, economic and human) of the illicit market means that it is timely to discuss a range of related topics including assessment of current strategies, capacity building and the 'Afghanisation' of policy, ongoing international cooperation and future prospects for Afghan CN policy.
展开▼