Crime and Insurgency

Insurgent and terror groups operating in the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan are deepening their involvement in organized crime, an aspect of the conflict that at once presents enormous challenges and also potential opportunities for Coalition forces trying to implement a population‐centric counterinsurgency strategy.  To gain a better understanding of these issues, Crime and Insurgency in the Tribal Areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan maps out how key insurgent groups engage in illicit activity in strategic areas, tracks how their involvement in this activity is evolving, and illustrates how insurgent and terror groups impose themselves on local communities as they spread to new territory.  The report’s findings are presented through a series of short and anecdotal case studies drawn from field research, primary source documents and open-source reporting.  It is hoped that this report will bring some clarity to an extremely complex phenomenon and prove useful to those developing policies and plans for the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.