Opportunity Structures, Rebel Governance, and Disputed Leadership: The Taliban’s Upsurge in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan, 2011–2015

Abstract

Even though Kunduz province in Afghanistan was under relatively firm government control in 2011, the Taliban insurgency was able to consolidate its power throughout the province in the years that followed and to temporarily take-over the provincial capital of Kunduz city for the first time since the U.S.-led intervention in 2001. Based on field research in 2013 and 2016, I argue that the Taliban’s upsurge took place because of a favorable opportunity structure for the insurgency that coincided with sufficient organizational capacities and a sense of urgency among the Taliban’s senior leadership.