In three sections, Rashid traces the rise of the Taliban to hegemony in southern Afghanistan, the religious politics that the Taliban exploited and the national interests of external actors that it successfully navigated to remain in power. (This book was published in 2000 after the cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan but before the war uprooting the Taliban.) Of these, the best developed and most intriguing section is the last. It focuses on the new "Great Game" between US and Russia and, secondarily, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, for pipelines to exploit the oil and gas reserves of the new Central Asian republics. (One might consider China here as a major actor as well.) This along with the desires of actors to manipulate conditions in Central Asia to improve their international standing and the petty corruption of the "transport mafia" best explains the complicated and dynamic relations of the external actors. The Taliban used those actors' interests against them in order to retain power.

At the end one has a much better sense of the strategies and motivations of the external actors than of the Taliban. Other than retaining power and "purifying" Afghan society consistent with their beliefs, we learn little about the Taliban's strategies and motivations or their political thought. It is difficult to fault the author as the leaders of the Taliban especially Mullah Omar were notoriously reticent and left few documents (other than their proclamations) explaining their thinking. ( )

After 9/11 I felt I should really understand more about this extremist Islamic movement which has had such a major affect on our world in the past few years. Not the easiest book to read, but eye-opening. ( )