The explosive growth of opium and heroin production in Afghanistan has had grave implications for global trafficking and organised crime. The European Union pursues a policy to stop the inflow of illicit narcotics closer to their source and this presentation outlines the challenges encountered in one such decade-long EU project in support of regional counter-narcotic cooperation seeking to foster closer operational cooperation with the two main transit countries Iran and Pakistan. The original premise saw the relatively modest degree of cooperation between the law enforcement and counter-narcotics agencies of the region as caused by a plethora of legal obstacles in the respective national penal and administrative codes, as well as an insufficient legal basis for regional collaboration.

These premises could not be validated on the ground. The legal framework in the region is adequate and no legal obstacles to cooperation were identified. Instead, the low level of trust that characterises relations between these states, organisational cultures inimical to information-sharing and joint operations, coupled with the absence of political will largely account for anaemic regional counter-narcotic collaboration. Drastically different national policy choices regarding the penalisation of consumption and drug-demand strategies have furthermore yielded dramatically different social outcomes, further complicating regional efforts.

Work on legal harmonisation is, therefore, deemed at best a relatively superfluous effort with little marginal impact, and at worst a potentially ultra vires act by regional and international organisations in contravention of member states’ sovereign prerogatives.