Against the backdrop of current efforts by the Iranian government to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz as a means of exerting leverage over the United States (US) and the global economy, this paper focuses on how armed actors in Afghanistan, and on its borders, used their control of key roadblocks on major highways and border crossings to gain rent and power, and deprive the central government of revenue, which ultimately undermined political support for the Afghan Republic. Synthesising a body of primary data that has been reported, in parts, across earlier papers by the author, the paper traces how roadblock politics contributed both to the collapse of the Afghan Republic and to the Taliban’s consolidation of power following their capture of Kabul in August 2021.
Drawing on extensive empirical evidence – including in-depth interviews, high-resolution satellite imagery and geospatial data – the paper quantifies and maps the volume and value of key trade flows and in most cases, the rents extracted by powerholders at strategic roadblocks under the Afghan Republic. In mapping the location and monies generated at these roadblocks, this paper also offers a graphic representation of the political dispensation under the Afghan Republic, identifies some of the most valuable real estate on which that settlement rested, and shows how this arrangement was subsequently undercut as the Taliban gained greater control over the arterial roads following the Doha Agreement with the US in February 2020. It also offers a rebuttal to much of the reporting on insurgent funding, where all too often the media and some scholars focus on high-value commodities such as minerals and drugs – the ‘narco-insurgency’ narrative – while empirical data shows significantly more money is earned from the ‘everyday goods’ – vehicles, spare parts, cigarettes, tea and fuel – transported in bulk on national highways and roads.
The paper is part of the working paper series Roadblocks and revenues, which explores the role of checkpoints in dynamics of order-making and conflict. Edited by Peer Schouten, Florian Weigand, Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien and Shalaka Thakur, the series is a collaborative effort between DIIS, the ICTD and Centre on Armed Groups, and is generously funded by the Carlsberg Foundation through the TRADECRAFT grant.
