The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat

Examining each major terrorist act and campaign of the decade following September 11, 2001, internationally recognized scholars launch original studies of 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 relays the changing character of al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sophisticated elements that, despite the West's best counterterrorism efforts, continue to exert substantial and sustained control over terrorist operations.

Through case studies of terrorist acts occurring both within and outside the West, the volume's contributors investigate al-Qaeda as it adapts to the strategies of Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequent U.S.-led global counterterrorism campaigns. They explore whether Osama bin Laden was indeed reduced to a mere figurehead before his death or whether he successfully exercised global command over al-Qaeda's activities. Did al-Qaeda become a loose collection of individuals and ideas following its expulsion from Afghanistan, or was it reborn as a transnational organization 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 important patterns and strategies that will best inform counterterrorism in a new century.