The Afghan-Central Asia Borderland

Based on extensive fieldwork in the Afghan and Tajik Badakhshan borderlands, this book shows how implantation of formal institutional border structures can be counterproductive. This is because it can marginalise local leaders and alienate the local population, thereby increasing overall instability. The book shows how, in this particular borderland, trafficking, corrupt border personnel, and imperfect new institutional arrangements, contributed to a complex mix of oppression and resistance, benefitting illicit traders and hindering humanitarian work.