The Geopolitics of Captagon
An evidence-based project examining the shifting intersections between Captagon trafficking and geopolitics in the Middle East.
Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine used throughout the Middle East, with 80% of the world’s supply is produced in Syria. While armed groups involved in the civil war (including Islamic State) were among the early users of Captagon, consumption has spread regionally and has emerged as a national security concern, especially in the Gulf states.
The resulting perceptions of the threat among major regional players (and key Western partners) such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia are strong. Yet there are numerous gaps in the evidence base on how the shifting threat assessment alters their strategic calculations, with the potential to significantly influence domestic, regional and international drug control policies.
Against this backdrop, the project considers the production and trade of Captagon and evaluates the means of its control as a feature of Syrian foreign policy, while taking into account the implications for drug control efforts across the region.
Aims and objectives
The project’s overall objective is to examine the means of control of Captagon production and trade as a feature of Syrian foreign policy, and the implications for drug control efforts at a range of levels.
Based on an examination of Syrian manufacturing and distribution networks, it considers the extent to which the Syrian regime can curtail or exercise influence over the Captagon trade. Our research efforts include an assessment of how far the trade can be understood as being within the control of the Assad regime. The project also seeks to forecast what realistic expectations there may be for the use of Captagon as a geopolitical and foreign policy tool by Syria in the years ahead.
Overall, we focus on the practical and policy implications, considering the relevance of these dynamics for domestic, regional and international drug control efforts, and the wider factors which both policy-makers and practitioners should consider in this area.