Economics & Inequality Retirement Security Education Health Care Homeland Security Election Reform Media & Politics International Affairs TCF Project Sites: Donate to TCF Join our Listserv  Taking Note Home About TCF News Room Join our Listserv Negotiating with the Taliban: Issues and Prospects     Email    Printer-Friendly Antonio Giustozzi, The Century Foundation, 6/21/2010 View related article in The Majlis. View related blog post in Attackerman. View related Reuters blog post. The resilience of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan over the past half-dozen years has dispelled illusions of a military “victory” excluding them, and an end to the thirty years’ war in Afghanistan seems certain to involve their reintegration in some form into Afghan politics. In considering possible negotiations with the Taliban, one particular concern is how united, or disunited, the Taliban really are: Is the control exercised by the leadership of the Taliban sufficiently strong to deliver on any negotiated settlement? Or is the control weak enough to allow for easily co-opting or buying off individual commanders, avoiding the pursuit of a settlement with the political leadership? This report by Antonio Giustozzi, written as part of The Century Foundation Project on Afghanistan in Its Regional and Multilateral Dimensions, lays out how the Taliban are structured and organized, with an eye to assessing the impact of their organization and modus operandi on their willingness to negotiate and honor a political settlement. Download the report here. Edition: online    Copyright 2010 The Century Foundation. Privacy Policy NY Office: 41 East 70th Street—New York, New York—10021—Phone:212-535-4441—212-879-9197 DC Office: 1333 H Street, NW—10th Floor— Washington, D.C. 20005— Phone: 202-387-0400— Fax: 202-483-9430