Download or read book Al Qaeda the Islamic State and the Global Jihadist Movement written by Daniel Byman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Founded as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda achieved a degree of international notoriety with a series of spectacular attacks in the 1990s; however, it was the dramatic assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 that truly launched Al Qaeda onto the global stage. The attacks endowed the organization with world-historical importance and provoked an overwhelming counterattack by the United States and other western countries. Within a year of 9/11, the core of Al Qaeda had been chased out of Afghanistan and into a variety of refuges across the Muslim world. Splinter groups and franchised offshoots were active in the 2000s in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen, but by early 2011, after more than a decade of relentless counterterrorism efforts by the United States and other Western military and intelligence services, most felt that Al Qaeda's moment had passed.

Download or read book Inside Al Qaeda written by Rohan Gunaratna and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-05 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the leadership, ideology, tactics, and finances of Al Qaeda, discusses how the organization trains fighters, and outlines the international response that will be necessary to destroy the organization.

Download or read book Beyond al Qaeda Part 1 The Global Jihadist Movement written by Angel Rabasa and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2002-10-14 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines al-Qaeda??s evolution and the emergence of the broader global jihadist movement-groups affiliated, associated, or inspired by al-Qaeda-and the threat that they pose to the United States and U.S. allies and interests. The authors conclude by setting out a four-pronged strategy to counter the jihadist threat.

Download or read book The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat written by Bruce Hoffman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining major terrorist acts and campaigns undertaken in the decade following September 11, 2001, internationally recognized scholars study the involvement of global terrorist leaders and organizations in these incidents and the planning, organization, execution, recruitment, and training that went into them. Their work captures the changing character of al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sophisticated elements that, despite the West's best counterterrorism efforts, continue to exert substantial direction over jihadist terrorist operations. Through case studies of terrorist acts and offensives occurring both in and outside the West, the volume's contributors investigate al-Qaeda and other related entities as they adapted to the strategies of Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequent U.S.-led global counterterrorism programs. They explore whether Osama bin Laden was indeed reduced to a mere figurehead before his death or continued to influence al-Qaeda's global activities. Did al-Qaeda become a loose collection of individuals and ideas following its expulsion from Afghanistan, or was it reborn as a transnational terrorist structure powered by a well-articulated ideology? What is the preeminent terrorist threat we face today, and what will it look like in the future? This anthology pinpoints the critical patterns and strategies that will inform counterterrorism in the coming decades.

Download or read book Beyond al Qaeda Part 2 The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe written by Angel Rabasa and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2002-10-14 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines violent terrorist groups that, while not formally allied with al-Qaeda, could pose a threat to Americans now or in the future and to the security of our friends and allies. The authors show how terrorists use criminal organizations and connections to finance their activities, and they identify distinct strategies to neutralize or mitigate these threats.

Download or read book Al Qaeda in Europe written by Lorenzo Vidino and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an expert at The Investigative Project, a counterterrorism institute and America's largest private data-gathering center on militant Islamic activities, this text fills a critical gap in the understanding of the new threats posed by Islamist terrorism.

Download or read book Global Jihadist Terrorism written by Paul Burke and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insightful book provides a unified repository of information on jihadist terrorism. Offering an integrated treatment of terrorist groups, zones of armed conflict and counter-terrorism responses from liberal democratic states, it presents fresh empirical perspectives on the origins and progression of conflict, and contemporary global measures to combat terrorist activity.

Download or read book Al Qaeda written by Doctor Christina Hellmich and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the attacks of September 11th 2001 and up to and beyond Osama bin Ladin's death, al-Qaeda has come to embody the new enigmatic face of terrorism, dominating discussions of national and international security. Yet in spite of the attention it receives, conflicting assumptions about the group abound. Is al-Qaeda a rigidly structured organization, a global network of semi-independent cells, a franchise, or simply an idea whose time has come? What is meant by talk of the ‘global Salafi jihad’ that is confronting the West? What are the implications of bin Ladin's death? Christina Hellmich offers a critical examination of the widely-held notions regarding the origins and manifestations of al-Qaeda and the sources on which they rely, mapping the organisation’s alleged transition from what began as a regional struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan to the increasingly leaderless jihad of the post-9/11 world. Rather than just providing yet another biography of al-Qaeda, Hellmich forensically examines discrepancies between the most common explanations and to the limits of what can realistically be known. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, 'al-Qaeda: From Global Network to Local Franchise' offers a penetrating insight into an organization which, for all its notoriety, is one of the least-understood of our time.

Download or read book Jihadism Transformed written by Simon Staffell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jihadist narratives have evolved dramatically over the past five years, driven by momentous events in the Middle East and beyond; the death of bin Laden; the rise and ultimate failure of the Arab Spring; and most notably, the rise of the so-called Islamic State. For many years, al-Qaeda pointed to an aspirational future Caliphate as their utopian end goal - one which allowed them to justify their violent excesses in the here and now. Islamic State turned that aspiration into a dystopic reality, and in the process hijacked the jihadist narrative, breathing new life into the global Salafi-Jihadi movement. Despite air-strikes from above, and local disillusionment from below, the new caliphate has stubbornly persisted and has been at the heart of ISIS's growing global appeal. This timely collection of essays examines how jihadist narratives have changed globally, adapting to these turbulent circumstances. Area and thematic specialists consider transitions inside the Middle East and North Africa as well as in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. As these analyses demonstrate, the success of the ISIS narrative has been as much about resonance with local contexts, as it has been about the appeal of the global idea of a tangible and realised caliphate.

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda written by Fawaz A. Gerges and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author re-evaluates the threat posed by Al-Qaeda following a decade of war.

Download or read book Al Qaeda in Its Own Words written by Gilles Kepel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To reveal the inner workings of Al Qaeda, this book collects and annotates key texts of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its beliefs and direction. There are excerpts from the writings of Azzabdallah Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Download or read book Joining Al Qaeda written by Peter R. Neumann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper explains the processes whereby European Muslims are recruited into the Islamist militant movement. It reveals that although overt recruitment has been driven underground, prisons and other 'places of vulnerability' are increasingly important alternatives.

Download or read book The Master Plan written by Brian H. Fishman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive narrative history of the Islamic State, from the 2005 master plan to reestablish the Caliphate to its quest for Final Victory in 2020 Given how quickly its operations have achieved global impact, it may seem that the Islamic State materialized suddenly. In fact, al-Qaeda’s operations chief, Sayf al-Adl, devised a seven-stage plan for jihadis to conquer the world by 2020 that included reestablishing the Caliphate in Syria between 2013 and 2016. Despite a massive schism between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, al-Adl’s plan has proved remarkably prescient. In summer 2014, ISIS declared itself the Caliphate after capturing Mosul, Iraq—part of stage five in al-Adl’s plan. Drawing on large troves of recently declassified documents captured from the Islamic State and its predecessors, counterterrorism expert Brian Fishman tells the story of this organization’s complex and largely hidden past—and what the master plan suggests about its future. Only by understanding the Islamic State’s full history—and the strategy that drove it—can we understand the contradictions that may ultimately tear it apart.

Download or read book Nexus of Global Jihad written by Assaf Moghadam and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State dominate through cooperation in the form of knowledge sharing, resource sharing, joint training exercises, and operational collaboration. They build alliances and lesser partnerships with other formal and informal terrorist actors to recruit foreign fighters and spread their message worldwide, raising the aggregate threat level for their declared enemies. Whether they consist of friends or foes, whether they are connected locally or online, these networks create a wellspring of support for jihadist organizations that may fluctuate in strength or change in character but never runs dry. Nexus of Global Jihad identifies types of terrorist actors, the nature of their partnerships, and the environments in which they prosper to explain global jihadist terrorism's ongoing success and resilience. Nexus of Global Jihad brings to light an emerging style of "networked cooperation" that works alongside interorganizational terrorist cooperation to establish bonds of varying depth and endurance. Case studies use recently declassified materials to illuminate al-Qaeda's dealings from Iran to the Arabian Peninsula and the informal actors that power the Sharia4 movement. The book proposes policies that increase intelligence gathering on informal terrorist actors, constrain enabling environments, and disrupt terrorist networks according to different types of cooperation. It is a vital text for strategists and scholars struggling to understand a growing spectrum of terrorist groups working together more effectively than ever before.

Download or read book Landscapes of the Jihad written by Faisal Devji and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict. Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity.Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.

Download or read book Global Jihadism written by Jarret M. Brachman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-09-03 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Jihadism exposes the core doctrine and strategy of today’s global Jihadist movement. The first half of the book explores the ideas upon which groups such as Al Qaeda are built, including the concepts of Jihad, al-Wala wal-Bara, Takfir and Tawhid. Jarret Brachman exposes a genre of Jihadist strategic scholarship that has been virtually ignored in the West and helps to situate it within the broader Salafist religious movement. The second half explores the thinking and activities of Al Qaeda’s propaganda machine, explaining its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. It includes case studies on the rise and fall of global Jihadist terrorism in Saudi Arabia post-9/11, and highlights the explosive results of bringing theory to bear on practice in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. The book concludes by providing innovative strategies for combating the global Jihadist ideology.

Download or read book The Search for Al Qaeda written by Bruce Riedel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Al Qaeda is the most dangerous terrorist movement in history. Yet most people in the West know very little about it, or their view is clouded by misperceptions and half truths. This widely acclaimed book fills this gap with a comprehensive analysis of al Qaeda—the origins, leadership, ideology, and strategy of the terrorist network that brought down the Twin Towers and continues to threaten us today. Bruce Riedel draws on decades of insider experience—he was actually in the White House during the September 11 attacks—in profiling the four most important figures in the al Qaeda movement: Usama bin Laden, ideologue and spokesman Ayman Zawahiri, former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musaib al Zarqawi (killed in 2006), and Mullah Omar, its Taliban host. These profiles provide the base from which Riedel delivers a much clearer understanding of al Qaeda and its goals, as well as what must be done to counter and defeat this most dangerous menace.