The state under Siege: The drug trade and organised crime in Tajikistan

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the drug trade on security and stability in Tajikistan. In order to capture the multifaceted nature of this relationship, the effects on territory, population, state institutions, and the idea of the state are examined. The types of threats affecting these components of the state are discussed. These include societal security in the form of addiction and drug-related diseases; the military threat, most notably manifested by the merger of crime and terror; economic and political threats resulting from a criminalised economic and political system; and the relationship between the drug trade and the legitimacy of the state.

Transnational Crime: Its Containment through International Cooperation

“…In other cases, the corruption of public and private institutions can exclude governments from effectively deterring illegal cross-border activities. Take the drug trade and organized crime in Tajikistan for example, drug trafficking has posed tremendous effect on territory, population, state institutions, and the idea of the state (Engvall, 2006). In this case, transnational crime should be perceived as international security issue.…”

Transnational Organised Crime and Fragile States

“…It was at this stage that the post-war evolution of the country began to be marked by much deeper interaction between political power-holders and the drugs trade. As the scholar Johann Engvall (2006) has put it, "Organised crime has not even needed to fight its way into the system. Rather, it has followed as an integral part in the wake of the institutional reconstruction evoked by the war".…”

“…At the same time, by corrupting poorly coordinated state and security institutions, TOC can unlock particular services or deactivate security controls without having to engage in costly system-wide bribery. The transition to competitive electoral democracy in Central America, the introduction of devolved municipal powers in Colombia, and the political rivalry of elite and clans in post-Soviet Central Asian Republics such as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (Engvall, 2006) have all resulted in atomised state structures, in which officials, politicians and other power-holders vie for access to the additional resources provided by criminal activity. In so doing these actors strengthen their patronage power and thereby consolidate the support of their local clients.…”

"The war on crime": The securitization of narco-trafficking in Mexico during the Calderon administration.

“…Also, even though the Americas remain a dominant focus in the literature, studies on other regions in the world surfaced as well (Gakhokidze, 2001;Cornell & Swanstrom, 2006;Engvall, 2006;Jackson, 2006). Most important, even though the literature remains dominantly informed by practice, there have been some works that engage in theoretical discussion, reflecting about how this issue connects with security theory (Griffith, 1994;Krasna, 1999;Lowenheim, 2002;Toro, 1993;Engvall, 2006).…”

“…Examples include, the threat posed by criminal drug organizations to national sovereignty (Toro, 1993), the collaboration of traffickers with other criminal organizations (Gakhokidze 2001;Cornell and Swanstrdm, 2006;Engvall, 2006), arms trafficking, money laundering, but most importantly, the prevalence of conflict and violence (Sharpe, 1988;Bagley, 1989Bagley, -1990Carpenter, 2010;Mercille, 2011;Gautreau, 2012;Lagos & Dammert, 2012). Also, even though the Americas remain a dominant focus in the literature, studies on other regions in the world surfaced as well (Gakhokidze, 2001;Cornell & Swanstrom, 2006;Engvall, 2006;Jackson, 2006).…”