How Are the Taliban Organized?  

(PLAYBOOK SLUG: Taliban Structure Explainer  

 After two decades of near-constant warfare and destruction, the Taliban now face the need to figure out how to govern the underdeveloped and impoverished nation they have just recaptured. Some insight into how that may progress can be gleaned from a closer look at the group’s leadership and organizational structure, as well as the parallel shadow government they established to prepare themselves for the challenges ahead.       The reestablishment of the Taliban leadership council after 9/11  As quickly as the Taliban seized power in recent weeks, their defeat at the hands of an international coalition and allied Afghan forces in 2001 was just as swift. The U.S.-led invasion destroyed the Taliban's organizational command and scattered their leadership. Their fighters merged into the populace or fled with refugees to neighboring Pakistan. According to a book written by a Taliban senior member, Abdul Hai Mutmain, in 2016, it was not until May 2002 that their supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was able to gather a few senior aides and set up a leadership council to direct resistance against the United States and its allies.