Reports
The South East Asian Drug Trade and It’s Impacts on Regional Conflict
- Asia Team
- 29 August 2024
The complex connection between drug trafficking and violence poses a serious threat to international development and security.
This relationship often creates a vicious cycle that further destabilises the regions in which it takes place and undermines their governance. In addition to feeding ongoing hostilities, the growth of the illicit drug economy in conflict-prone areas fosters the conditions necessary for the emergence of new conflicts. Armed groups fighting in civil wars have been using illegal trade of rare resources for a long time, such as diamonds in Sierra Leone, Angola, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The instability in Myanmar following the military coup d’état in 2021 has allowed the drug economy to expand beyond control in the Mekong region, which comprises China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The geographic region enclosed by the borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, commonly referred to as The Golden Triangle, is known for the cultivation of opium and its transformation into heroin. It is estimated that the profits generated by the drugs cultivated in this region were close to 80 billion dollars in 2023.
This report will investigate the problems surrounding the Southeast Asian drug trade and how it has influenced and affected current instability in the region.
This relationship often creates a vicious cycle that further destabilises the regions in which it takes place and undermines their governance. In addition to feeding ongoing hostilities, the growth of the illicit drug economy in conflict-prone areas fosters the conditions necessary for the emergence of new conflicts. Armed groups fighting in civil wars have been using illegal trade of rare resources for a long time, such as diamonds in Sierra Leone, Angola, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The instability in Myanmar following the military coup d’état in 2021 has allowed the drug economy to expand beyond control in the Mekong region, which comprises China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The geographic region enclosed by the borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, commonly referred to as The Golden Triangle, is known for the cultivation of opium and its transformation into heroin. It is estimated that the profits generated by the drugs cultivated in this region were close to 80 billion dollars in 2023.
This report will investigate the problems surrounding the Southeast Asian drug trade and how it has influenced and affected current instability in the region.
✨ AI summary
The complex connection between drug trafficking and violence poses a serious threat to international development and security.
This relationship often creates a vicious cycle that further destabilises the regions in which it takes place and undermines their governance. In addition to feeding ongoing hostilities, the growth of the illicit drug economy in conflict-prone areas fosters the conditions necessary for the emergence of new conflicts. Armed groups fighting in civil wars have been using illegal trade of rare resources for a long time, such as diamonds in Sierra Leone, Angola, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The instability in Myanmar following the military coup d’état in 2021 has allowed the drug economy to expand beyond control in the Mekong region, which comprises China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The geographic region enclosed by the borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, commonly referred to as The Golden Triangle, is known for the cultivation of opium and its transformation into heroin. It is estimated that the profits generated by the drugs cultivated in this region were close to 80 billion dollars in 2023.
This report will investigate the problems surrounding the Southeast Asian drug trade and how it has influenced and affected current instability in the region.
This relationship often creates a vicious cycle that further destabilises the regions in which it takes place and undermines their governance. In addition to feeding ongoing hostilities, the growth of the illicit drug economy in conflict-prone areas fosters the conditions necessary for the emergence of new conflicts. Armed groups fighting in civil wars have been using illegal trade of rare resources for a long time, such as diamonds in Sierra Leone, Angola, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The instability in Myanmar following the military coup d’état in 2021 has allowed the drug economy to expand beyond control in the Mekong region, which comprises China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The geographic region enclosed by the borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, commonly referred to as The Golden Triangle, is known for the cultivation of opium and its transformation into heroin. It is estimated that the profits generated by the drugs cultivated in this region were close to 80 billion dollars in 2023.
This report will investigate the problems surrounding the Southeast Asian drug trade and how it has influenced and affected current instability in the region.
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