The drugs war within: crisis, crackdown and intra-regime conflict in Bangladesh

Journal article

Bangladesh is one of the latest countries to lose a war on drugs. Under the now deposed Awami League government a nationwide drugs crackdown and ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy was launched in 2018 and led to hundreds of deaths. Globally such wars are often framed as clashes between states and ‘organised crime’ and seen as populist strategies for electoral advantage. In many contexts such as Bangladesh however, the drugs trade is in fact controlled by politicians and officials working in syndicates with traffickers. We must therefore also view such crackdowns in terms of intra-regime dynamics. This raises important questions, such as how do crackdowns reshape parties and states, and do these dynamics help explain the failure of such wars? Part of why Bangladesh’s war failed was because it was refracted by local politics. Attempts to sideline drug ‘godfather’ politicians faced the reality of local powerbases, and even the lists of targets became corrupted, highlighting the limitations of top-down authoritarian reforms. Despite the turmoil of the 2024 revolution and its aftermath, drug syndicates are resilient and growing.

Authors: Jackman, D

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Journal: Journal of Contemporary Asia
• Acceptance date: 2026-01-11
• EISSN: 1752-7554
• ISSN: 0047-2336
• Language: English
• Keywords: drug war; drugs; extrajudicial; corruption; Bangladesh