New Afghanistan: The Taliban Organizations Power Process and Power Sources

The Taliban Organization has been considered as the most important actor in Afghanistan politics since 1994. Some studies on the Taliban only focus on the hard power aspects of the organization. This study does not ignore the hard power used by the Taliban organization to manipulate the society, but also examines other elements that reinforce the organization's power in Afghanistan. Defining the Taliban as an illegitimate organization that uses only hard power elements will prevent us from understanding the organization's power process correctly. In this sense, the study examines the social, economic and diplomatic power elements of the Taliban Organization. In the study, data on the power elements of the Taliban Organization were collected. In this direction, each of the religious, cultural, economic, social, political, diplomatic and psychological elements used by the organization was analyzed with examples. The study concluded that the Taliban Organization, which aims to become the absolute power in Afghanistan, is the most active power in Afghanistan, using many different political tools, conducting important negotiations in the field of international diplomacy and trying to gain legitimacy. Keywords: Afghanistan, Taliban, Political Groups, External Actors, Warlords, Pashtunism