September 11, 2001
Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Public Choice
Volume
111
Publication Date
2002
First Page
1
Last Page
8
Abstract
Afghanistan has almost always been on the verge of disintegration. Straddling the mountain passes that link the plains of India with Central Asia and beyond, it was a frequently moved pawn in the Great Game played out in the late nineteenth century between the British and Russian empires, each seeking a buffer zone against the other’s expansionist aims. Before that, Afghanistan sat astride the path of vital East-West trade convoys moving over the famous Silk Route. More recently, control of the Afghani mountain passes has been sharply contested by local warlords and Mafia-like criminal organizations trafficking in drugs and contraband. Foreign powers, great and small, have long sought “spheres of influence” in this “strategic frontier” (Pigou, [1921] 1941: 27), sometimes intervening directly, but more often by courting tribal chieftains with money and guns.
Recommended Citation
September 11, 2001”, Public Choice 111 (March 2002), pp. 1–8 [also published in Public Choice 112 (September 2002), pp. 225–232]; reprinted in Charles K. Rowley and Friedrich Schneider (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Public Choice, vol. II, Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 520–524, and in Rosemary H. T. O’Kane (ed.), Terrorism, vol. II. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2005, pp. 221–228.
