The Taliban are back in power. But how will they govern?

When gun-toting Taliban fighters stormed the compound of her small community aid organization on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Marnie Gustavson feared the worst.

Ms. Gustavson, who had followed U.S. Embassy guidelines to evacuate, learned from her security personnel when she landed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that fighters had overwhelmed the organization’s unarmed security guards, stolen trucks, and kidnapped her head manager.

“Things moved so fast,” says Ms. Gustavson, executive director of PARSA, a grassroots nongovernmental organization in Afghanistan since 1996. “I wasn’t prepared for the Taliban to come to the gates of Kabul and for the Afghan government to simply melt away and disappear, leaving the population unprotected.”

Then, almost as quickly, the crisis gave way to a tense calm. Taliban leaders freed PARSA’s manager from the armed

Savvier leadershipReports of executionsDifferent reception this time