Taliban's Financial Activities replace Ideology

The motivation for many of the Taliban may no longer be revenge or ideology according to a recent online article posted on Foreign Policy. The authors believe that money has now become the primary motivator for belonging to the Taliban. They state that the Taliban have become the ". . . gatekeepers to a host of black market activities that both sustain the organization and help recruit members". Recommendations from the authors include strategies that address these extra-legal funding sources. Sources of money include the drug trade, protection money paid by international and government contracts, Islamic taxes, smuggling, and other financial activities. The article explores three transforming periods of time of the Taliban (post-2001) explaining how it went from an ideological organization to one very keen on financial activities. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between a Taliban organization and a criminal patronage network in several provinces. Read more in "The Taliban's Transformation from Ideology to Franchise", The South Asia Channel Foreign Policy, October 17, 2014.