The Fall of the Taliban Regime and Its Recovery as an Insurgent Movement in Afghanistan
Abstract
This thesis investigates the rapid defeat of the Taliban Regime by a U.S.-led coalition and the ability of the Taliban to survive, reorganize, and form an insurgency movement. The author contends that there is an important set of interrelated social, cultural, religious, ethnic, tribal, historical, and geographic factors that must be considered if one is to understand the current resurgence of the Taliban as an insurgency. The rationale for looking at these factors is to provide insight into the Taliban resurgence that can expose possible vulnerabilities that could be used to defeat it. The main premise is that the insurgency cannot be divorced from its larger cultural context, and that an understanding of the Taliban's support base will yield solutions towards eroding that base of support. The thesis does not provide the definitive solution; rather, it sheds light on the human factors of the problem that are often overlooked in the quest for decisive military action. The underlying assumption is that improving understanding of the human environment in which forces operate provides new points of departure or shifts in focus that could be more effective in countering the reemergence of the Taliban or other similar groups. (1 table, 3 figures, 32 refs.)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 18, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA428904
Entities
People
- Bakhtiyorjon U. Hammidov
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College