I was delighted to participate in a one-day conference in Islamabad on Afghanistan, hosted by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), full video available here. My speech on narcotics begins at 1:55:40. (I’m a bit late posting this event, as I’ve been on the road).

I was honoured to be included as a panelist in this Brookings Institution discussion on China’s role in the smuggling of synthetic drugs and precursors, full video available here. (I’m a bit late posting this event, as I’ve been on the road).

My new story for Nikkei Asia covers recent official and non-government reports that highlight India’s role as a supplier of chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs like fentanyl.

My long read for The National Interest looks at China’s role in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which has been exaggerated.

My latest story looks at recent talks between the Taliban and Afghan resistance in Tehran and links of Iran and Russia to Massoud’s NRF.

In my new piece I report that drug seizures at Torkham on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have increased sharply in recent weeks, pointing to a trafficking boom.

For Nikkei Asia, I interviewed the head of India’s Narcotics Control Bureau, who expressed deep concern about the risk of increased drug-trafficking from Afghanistan and Myanmar.

Read my story (published during the holiday season in December) on the remarkable boom in drug-trafficking that is apparently taking place despite the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain crisis.

In August the Taliban vowed to ban drugs, but opium cultivation and narco-trafficking have continued since they seized power. Read my new story for more.

My latest piece for The National Interest shows that Pakistan’s relations with the new Taliban regime have been tense and sometimes acrimonious. Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been strained by deep structural factors which will not go away simply because the Taliban is in power.