Targeting Insurgent Finances: Insights from US Operations Against ISIS and the Taliban

This article examines the dynamics of targeting insurgent finances, and reciprocally the resilience of insurgent financing, through a comparative case study of two near concurrent US-led bombing campaigns: one targeting ISIS oil revenue and the other targeting Taliban opium revenue. Despite similar objectives and approach, these campaigns led to markedly divergent outcomes, due to different organisational and governance mechanisms for each targeted entity. ISIS reliance on oil extraction contributed to a highly centralised organisation, presenting clear vulnerabilities for coalition strikes. Whereas the Taliban’s polycentric governance and decentralised finances, enmeshed with a localised opium industry, presented vulnerabilities that proved only elusive.