Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement

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Author :
Publisher : What Everyone Needs to Know(r)
ISBN 13 : 019021726X
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement by : Daniel Byman

Download or read book Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement written by Daniel Byman and published by What Everyone Needs to Know(r). 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.

Jihadism Transformed

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019065029X
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Jihadism Transformed by : Simon Staffell

Download or read book Jihadism Transformed written by Simon Staffell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 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 Springs; 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. The rise of Islamic State turned that aspiration into a dystopic reality, and in the process, usurped the Jihadist narrative from them almost completely, 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 ISIL'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 ISIL 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.

The Terror Years

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0385352077
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis The Terror Years by : Lawrence Wright

Download or read book The Terror Years written by Lawrence Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. Here, in ten powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker, he recalls the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, from the rise of al-Qaeda in the 1990s to the recent beheadings of reporters and aid workers by ISIS. The Terror Years draws on several articles he wrote while researching The Looming Tower, as well as many that he’s written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread. They include a portrait of the “man behind bin Laden,” Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the tumultuous Egypt he helped spawn; an indelible impression of Saudi Arabia, a kingdom of silence under the control of the religious police; the Syrian film industry, at the time compliant at the edges but already exuding a feeling of the barely masked fury that erupted into civil war; the 2006–11 Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, a study in the disparate value of human lives. Other chapters examine al-Qaeda as it forms a master plan for its future, experiences a rebellion from within the organization, and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. The American response is covered in profiles of two FBI agents and the head of the intelligence community. The book ends with a devastating piece about the capture and slaying by ISIS of four American journalists and aid workers, and our government’s failed response. On the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, The Terror Years is at once a unifying recollection of the roots of contemporary Middle Eastern terrorism, a study of how it has grown and metastasized, and, in the scary and moving epilogue, a cautionary tale of where terrorism might take us yet.

The Master Plan

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300224532
Total Pages : 377 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Master Plan by : Brian H. Fishman

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.

Al Qaeda's Global Crisis

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317645383
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Al Qaeda's Global Crisis by : V. G. Julie Rajan

Download or read book Al Qaeda's Global Crisis written by V. G. Julie Rajan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-01-30 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the crises facing Al Qaeda and how the mass killing of Muslims is challenging its credibility as a leader among Islamist jihadist organizations. The book argues that these crises are directly related to Al Qaeda’s affiliation with the extreme violence employed against Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the decade since 9/11. Al Qaeda’s public and private responses to this violence differ greatly. While in public Al Qaeda has justified those attacks declaring that, for the establishment of a state of ‘true believers’, they are a necessary evil, in private Al Qaeda has been advising its local affiliates to refrain from killing Muslims. To better understand the crises facing Al Qaeda, the book explores the development of Central Al Qaeda’s complex relationship with radical (mis)appropriations and manifestations of takfir, which allows one Muslim to declare another an unbeliever, and its unique relationship with each of its affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The author then goes on to consider how the prominence of takfir is contributing to the deteriorating security in those countries and how this is affecting Al Qaeda’s credibility as an Islamist terror organization. The book concludes by considering the long-term viability of Al Qaeda and how its demise could allow the rise of the even more radical, violent Islamic State and the implications this has for the future security of the Middle East, North Africa and Central/South Asia. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence and terrorism, Islamism, global security and IR.

The Al-qaeda Organization and the Islamic State Organization

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781543076066
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (76 download)

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Book Synopsis The Al-qaeda Organization and the Islamic State Organization by : Paul Kamolnick

Download or read book The Al-qaeda Organization and the Islamic State Organization written by Paul Kamolnick and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-02-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The al-Qaeda Organization (AQO) and the Islamic State Organization (ISO) are transnational adversaries that conduct terrorism in the name of Sunni Islam. It is declared U.S. Government (USG) policy to degrade, defeat, and destroy them. The present book has been written to assist policymakers, military planners, strategists, and professional military educators whose mission demands a deep understanding of strategically-relevant differences between these two transnational terrorist entities. In it, one shall find a careful comparative analysis across three key strategically relevant dimensions: essential doctrine, beliefs, and worldview; strategic concept, including terrorist modus operandi; and specific implications and recommendations for current USG policy and strategy. Key questions that are addressed include: How is each terrorist entity related historically and doctrinally to the broader phenomenon of transnational Sunni "jihadism"? What is the exact nature of the ISO? How, if at all, does ISO differ in strategically relevant ways from AQO? What doctrinal differences essentially define these entities? How does each understand and operationalize strategy? What critical requirements and vulnerabilities characterize each entity? Finally, what implications, recommendations, and proposals are advanced that are of particular interest to USG strategists and professional military educators?

The Islamic State in Khorasan

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1787380955
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

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Book Synopsis The Islamic State in Khorasan by : Antonio Giustozzi

Download or read book The Islamic State in Khorasan written by Antonio Giustozzi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So-called Islamic State began to appear in what it calls Khorasan (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iran and India) in 2014. Reports of its presence were at first dismissed as propaganda, but during 2015 it became clear that IS had a serious presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan at least. This book, by one of the leading experts on Islamist insurgency in the region, explores the nature of IS in Khorasan, its aim and strategies, and its evolution in an environment already populated by many jihadist organisations. Based on first-hand research and numerous interviews with members of IS in Khorasan, as well as with other participants and observers, the book addresses highly contentious issues such as funding, IS's relationship with the region's authorities, and its interactions with other insurgent groups. Giustozzi argues that the central leadership of IS invested significant financial resources in establishing its own branch in Khorasan, and as such it is more than a local movement which adopted the IS brand for its own aims. Though the central leadership has been struggling in implementing its project, it is now turning towards a more realistic approach. This is the first book on a new frontier in Islamic State's international jihad.

The Syrian Jihad

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190462477
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis The Syrian Jihad by : Charles R. Lister

Download or read book The Syrian Jihad written by Charles R. Lister and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria's ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. Ranging across the battlefields and international borders have been dozens of jihadi Islamist fighting groups, of which some coalesced into significant factions such as Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State. This book assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organizations in Syria's fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. Unprecedented numbers of foreign fighters have joined such groups, who will almost certainly continue to host them. Thus, external factors in their emergence are scrutinized, including the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and how it has influenced the jihadist sphere in Syria. Tensions between and conflict within such groups also feature in this indispensable volume.

Media Persuasion in the Islamic State

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 023154412X
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Media Persuasion in the Islamic State by : Neil Krishan Aggarwal

Download or read book Media Persuasion in the Islamic State written by Neil Krishan Aggarwal and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the declaration of the War on Terror in 2001, militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have used the internet to disseminate their message and persuade people to commit violence. While many books have studied their operational strategies and battlefield tactics, Media Persuasion in the Islamic State is the first to analyze the culture and psychology of militant persuasion. Drawing upon decades of research in cultural psychiatry, cultural psychology, and psychiatric anthropology, Neil Krishan Aggarwal investigates how the Islamic State has convinced people to engage in violence since its founding in 2003. Through analysis of hundreds of articles, speeches, videos, songs, and bureaucratic documents in English and Arabic, the book traces how the jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi created a new culture and psychology, one that would pit Sunni Muslims against all others after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Aggarwal tracks how Osama bin Laden and al-Zarqawi disagreed over the goal of militancy in jihad before reaching a détente in 2004 and how al-Qaeda in Iraq merged with five other groups to diffuse its militant cultural identity in 2006 before taking advantage of the Syrian civil war to emerge as the Islamic State. Aggarwal offers a definitive analysis of how culture is created, debated, and disseminated within militant organizations like the Islamic State. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and area-studies experts will find a comprehensive, systematic method for analyzing culture and psychology so they can partner with political scientists, policy makers, and counterterrorism experts in crafting counter-messaging strategies against militants.

Al Qaeda in Europe

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Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 161592311X
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (159 download)

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Book Synopsis Al Qaeda in Europe by : Lorenzo Vidino

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.

The Islamic State

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Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815726686
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis The Islamic State by : Charles R. Lister

Download or read book The Islamic State written by Charles R. Lister and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative guide to the rise of the Islamic State and its senior leadership. How did the Islamic State grow from regional terrorist group to a brutal multinational bureaucratic machine? What are its goals? How can it be stopped? In 2014 the Islamic State seemingly appeared out of nowhere, routing Iraqi forces, conquering Iraq's second-largest city, boldly announcing the establishment of a caliphate, and declaring itself the Islamic State (IS). Today, IS controls thousands of square miles and is attempting to govern millions of people. In this definitive guide to the Islamic State and its senior leadership, Charles R. Lister traces its roots from the release of its notorious father figure, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, from a Jordanian prison and the group's formation in Afghanistan in the late-1990s, and finally to its stunning maturation in Iraq and Syria. The West knows IS through its unrelenting propaganda war, with its deft use of social media and videos of horrific acts. Lister shares details of IS's sophisticated revenue machine, attempts at governing, and its formidable military. With IS knocking on the doors of Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, Lister's portrait helps us understand what to expect next and recommends a course of action to defeat IS, extinguish extremism, and encourage a tolerant Islam across the Middle East. This book includes a Who's Who in the Islamic State's senior leadership. From the foreword by Ahmed Rashid "The Islamic State is the best basic understanding available of the ISIS phenomena and how to deal with it."

Al Qaeda in Its Own Words

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674028043
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Al Qaeda in Its Own Words by : Gilles Kepel

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.

The Future of Terrorism

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Publisher : Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN 13 : 1250142512
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of Terrorism by : Walter Laqueur

Download or read book The Future of Terrorism written by Walter Laqueur and published by Thomas Dunne Books. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Since the death of bin Laden in 2011, ISIS has risen, al-Qaeda has expanded its reach, and right-wing extremists have surged in the United States for the same simple reason: terrorism works. It's not caused by psychosis or irrationality, as the media often suggests. Instead, it is terrifyingly logical. Violent acts produce political results. This has been an uncomfortable truth throughout human history, from the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, through the terror campaigns by Irish and Indian nationalists, and on to the Nazis and Italian Fascists. Battling terrorism today require confronting the truth. Walter Laqueur and Christopher Wall do so in this crucial, timely book. To explain why terror is on the rise again, the authors show how the American invasion of Iraq created the conditions for the emergence of al-Qaeda there, part of which metastasized into ISIS, while Russia's increasing intervention in Syria allowed both of those organizations to evolve. And within the United States, the violence of the alt-right has emboldened its supporters. The Future of Terrorism brings reason to a topic usually ruled by fear. Laqueur and Wall show the structural features behind contemporary terrorism: how bad governance abets terror; the link between poverty and terrorism; why religious terrorism is more dangerous than secular; and the nature of supposed "lone wolf" terrorists. Fear alone provides no tools to combat the future of terrorism. This book does"--Dust jacket flap.

The Islamic State in Africa

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780197639320
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (393 download)

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Book Synopsis The Islamic State in Africa by : Jason Warner

Download or read book The Islamic State in Africa written by Jason Warner and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2022-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2019, Islamic State lost its last remaining sliver of territory in Syria, and its Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed. These setbacks seemed to herald the Caliphate's death knell, and many now forecast its imminent demise. Yet its affiliates endure, particularly in Africa: nearly all of Islamic State's cells on the continent have reaffirmed their allegiance, attacks have continued in its name, many groups have been reinvigorated, and a new province has emerged. Why, in Africa, did the two major setbacks of 2019 have so little impact on support for Islamic State? The Islamic State in Africa suggests that this puzzle can be explained by the emergence and evolution of Islamic State's provinces in Africa, which it calls "sovereign subordinates". By examining the rise and development of eight Islamic State "cells", the authors show how, having pledged allegiance to IS Central, cells evolved mostly autonomously, using the IS brand as a means for accrual of power, but, in practice, receiving relatively little if any direction or material support from central command. Given this pattern, IS Central's relative decline has had little impact on its African affiliates--who are likely to remain committed to the Caliphate's cause for the foreseeable future.

The Terror Years

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0804170037
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis The Terror Years by : Lawrence Wright

Download or read book The Terror Years written by Lawrence Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These powerful investigative pieces, which take us from the religious police of Saudi Arabia to the rise of the Islamic State, comprise an essential primer on jihadist movements in the Middle East—and the attempts of the West to contain them. In these pages, Lawrence Wright examines al-Qaeda as it experiences a rebellion from within and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. He shows us the Syrian film industry before the civil war—compliant at the edges but already exuding a barely masked fury. He gives us the heart-wrenching story of American children kidnapped by ISIS—and Atlantic publisher David Bradley’s efforts to secure their release. And he details the roles of key FBI figures John O’Neill and his talented protégé Ali Soufan in fighting terrorism. In a moving epilogue, Wright shares his predictions for the future. Rigorous, clear-eyed, and compassionate, The Terror Years illuminates the complex human players on all sides of a devastating conflict.

The Future of ISIS

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Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815732171
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of ISIS by : Feisal al-Istrabadi

Download or read book The Future of ISIS written by Feisal al-Istrabadi and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking to the future in confronting the Islamic State The Islamic State (best known in the West as ISIS or ISIL) has been active for less than a decade, but it has already been the subject of numerous histories and academic studies—all focus primarily on the past. The Future of ISIS is the first major study to look ahead: what are the prospects for the Islamic State in the near term, and what can the global community, including the United States, do to counter it? Edited by two distinguished scholars at Indiana University, the book examines how ISIS will affect not only the Middle East but the global order. Specific chapters deal with such questions as whether and how ISIS benefitted from intelligence failures, and what can be done to correct any such failures; how to confront the alarmingly broad appeal of Islamic State ideology; the role of local and regional actors in confronting ISIS; and determining U.S. interests in preventing ISIS from gaining influence and controlling territory. Given the urgency of the topic, The Future of ISIS is of interest to policymakers, analysts, and students of international affairs and public policy.

Decoding Al-Qaeda's Strategy

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231533276
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Decoding Al-Qaeda's Strategy by : Michael W. S. Ryan

Download or read book Decoding Al-Qaeda's Strategy written by Michael W. S. Ryan and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By consulting the work of well-known and obscure al-Qaeda theoreticians, Michael W. S. Ryan finds jihadist terrorism strategy has more in common with the principles of Maoist guerrilla warfare than mainstream Islam. Encouraging strategists and researchers to devote greater attention to jihadi ideas rather than jihadist military operations, Ryan builds an effective framework for analyzing al-Qaeda's plans against America and constructs a compelling counternarrative to the West's supposed "war on Islam." Ryan examines the Salafist roots of al-Qaeda ideology and the contributions of its most famous founders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a political-military context. He also reads the Arabic-language works of lesser known theoreticians who have played an instrumental role in framing al-Qaeda's so-called war of the oppressed. These authors readily cite the guerrilla strategies of Mao, Che Guevara, and the mastermind of the Vietnam War, General Giap. They also incorporate the arguments of American theorists writing on "fourth-generation warfare." Through these texts, readers experience events as insiders see them, and by concentrating on the activities and pronouncements of al-Qaeda's thought leaders, especially in Yemen, they discern the direct link between al-Qaeda's tactics and trends in anti-U.S. terrorism. Ryan shows al-Qaeda's political-military strategy to be a revolutionary and largely secular departure from the classic Muslim conception of jihad, adding invaluable dimensions to the operational, psychological, and informational strategies already deployed by America's military in the region.