Who are the Taliban? The Taliban are a Pashtun nationalist movement / Michael J. Totten ; The Taliban are part of global Jihadism and allied with al Qaeda / Scott Baldauf and Owais Tohid ; The Taliban cannot be categorized easily as any one movement / Anand Gopal ; The Taliban are funded by money from narcotics / Hayder Mili ; All of Afghanistan, not just the Taliban, relies on money from narcotics / Ted Galen Carpenter

How should the United States deal with the Taliban? The Taliban threaten vital U.S. interests / Barack Obama ; The Taliban are not a threat to the United States / John Mueller ; The Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan / Kimberly Kagan ; The United States is well positioned to win the war in Afghanistan / Peter Bergen ; America must negotiate with the Taliban / Andrew Blandford ; America should not negotiate with the Taliban / Inge Fryklund

What is the Taliban's relationship with Pakistan? Pakistan opposes the Taliban / Husain Haqqani ; Pakistan aids the Taliban / Selig S. Harrison ; Pakistan has capitulated to the Taliban / Susanne Koelbl ; Pakistan seeks role as mediator in possible Taliban-Afghanistan peace talks / Pamela Constable ; Pakistan has done a poor job negotiating with the Taliban / Sharad Joshi ; The U.S. war may allow the Taliban to seize control of Pakistan / Pratap Chatterjee ; Military cooperation between the United States and Pakistan can help defeat the Taliban / Eli Clifton and Charles Fromm ; Pakistani civilian authorities, not the military, must address the Taliban crisis / Shuja Nawaz

What is the Taliban's relationship with other nations? Iran opposes the Taliban / Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (STRATFOR) ; The Taliban may be obtaining Chinese weapons from Iran / Ron Synovitz ; Russia and China are working to contain the Taliban / Dmitry Shlapentokh ; Money from individuals in Russia and Saudi Arabia helps support the Taliban / Ryan Mauro ; Saudi Arabia tacitly supports the Taliban / Rachel Ehrenfeld ; Saudi Arabia could act as an arbiter with the Taliban / Michael Shank.