What is the importance of Helmand Province in the nonfiction book, The Afghanistan Papers?

Helmand is Afghanistan’s largest province by square kilometer. Its capital city is Lashkargah. The province is located in the southern part of the country, and borders Afghanistan’s Balochistan region to the south. Though majority Pashtun, Helmand has a substantial Balochi minority. The province is mostly rural, with an arid climate in which the cultivation of opium thrives. This is the main reason that the book references the province repeatedly, as the author details various US attempts to curb opium production that fuels the international heroin trade.

As a largely rural and Pashtun-majority province, Helmand is one of the strongholds of the Taliban insurgency as well. The province has a long martial history. Helmand featured prominently in the Anglo-Afghan wars of the late nineteenth century.

Demographics in the province are difficult to determine. Estimates put the population at between one and two million. According to Whitlock, demographic uncertainties exacerbate the US fight against the heroin trade in Afghanistan.