Afghanistan: Drug Trafficking, and More from CRS
“Drug trafficking, a long-standing feature of Afghanistan’s post-Taliban political economy, is linked to corruption and insecurity, and provides a source of illicit finance for non-state armed groups,” says a new report from the Congressional Research Service.
“Based on recent production and trafficking trends, the drug problem in Afghanistan appears to be worsening,” the CRS report found. See Afghanistan: Drug Trafficking and the 2014 Transition, May 9, 2014.
Other new CRS reports that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.
Navy LX(R) Amphibious Ship Program: Background and Issues for Congress, May 12, 2014
How Social Security Benefits Are Computed: In Brief, May 12, 2014
Airport Privatization: Issues and Options for Congress, May 12, 2014
Body Armor for Law Enforcement Officers: In Brief, May 13, 2014
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.