The strategic cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan in Helmand Basin to allocate more water to environment and control opium cultivation using game theory approach

The challenges between Iran and Afghanistan have different aspects. Definitely, the production of opium in Afghanistan and saving the environment of the eastern Iran are the most important ones. Notably that water consumption is the common point between these two challenges. This research work aims to assess a new approach in the relation between Iran and Afghanistan using the sequential and issue linkage methods of game theory. For this a number of incentives like transfer of agricultural technologies are evaluated for possible decrease in opium cultivation, increase in inflows to Iran and simultaneously achieving more payoff for Afghanistan. The results show that the successfulness of this strategic is highly dependent of opium price. Such that it is only efficient up to $200 per kg of opium price and for the higher prices, its capacity reduces drastically. The research highlights how issue linkage can be useful in international relations to solve a long lasting transboundary water conflict and achievement of a win-win solution for the riparian parties.