Author will discuss opium’s role in the Afghan conflict at Baker Institute lecture Nov. 17

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Opium is Afghanistan’s leading export. Production has skyrocketed since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, although it has declined slightly in the last two years. Gretchen Peters, a journalist who has worked extensively in Afghanistan, will offer her perspective on the role of opium in the current conflict at a Nov. 17 lecture at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

	GRETCHEN PETERS

Peters will present “Seeds of Terror: How the Taliban and al Qaeda are Morphing into the World’s New Narco-Mafia” at 6 p.m. in Baker Hall’s Kelly International Conference Facility.

Peters is the author of “Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda,” which traces the role the opium trade has played in three decades of conflict in Afghanistan. She seeks to reshape how people define the many insurgent and terror groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Peters spent five years researching and writing the book with the help of local reporters. Together they surveyed and interviewed hundreds of Taliban fighters, extremists, smugglers, law enforcement officials and intelligence agents.

Peters also authored a policy report on the Taliban and the opium trade for the United States Institute of Peace and covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade, first for the Associated Press and later for ABC News. She has worked with other leading media outlets, including the National Geographic Society, Christian Science Monitor and The New Republic, and has become a regular commentator on NPR and CNN, among others.

Rice faculty, staff and students who want to attend must RSVP by e-mail (bipprsvp@rice.edu), by fax (713-348-5993) or on the Web at
http://www.bakerinstitute.org/events/seeds-of-terror-how-the-taliban-and-al-qaeda-are-morphing-into-the-worlds-new-narco-mafia.