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<p>This thesis is a comparative study of conflict and opium in the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle, focusing in particular on Afghanistan-Pakistan and Burma. It takes a state building approach to analyze the formation and composition of opiate-funded \"proto-states\" in the two regions, with case studies on the Taliban and the United Wa State Party. Historic, political, ethnic and cultural factors are explored in relation to each region and proto-state case. The basic argument is that opium and opiate trade provided capital for the formation of basic state-like entities that conduct all the basic statebuilding activities as defined in the literature. What are often called \"insurgent groups\" are actually armies of proto-states. What are often called \"insurgencies\" are actually conflicts between infant states in areas that never contained nation-states. This paradigm suggests an alternate method to study these two areas: a method that emphasizes history and anthropology to understand the basic motivations and attributes of the proto-state actors.
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<br>Subjects: Afghanistan; Burma; Insurgency; Opium; Drugs; State-building; Golden Triangle; Golden Crescent; Proto-state; States-within-states; Taliban; UWSA; UWSP; Wa; Shan State; Ethno-nationalism; Pashtun; Pashtunistan</div>
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Merz, Andrew A.</div>
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