al-Qaeda From Global Network to Local Franchise

by Hellmich, Christina

• ISBN13: 9781848139091
• ISBN10: 1848139098
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-15
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

Since the attacks of September 11th 2001, 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? 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 wealth of Arabic-language sources -- many of them previously unavailable in English -- Al-Qaeda: From Global Network to Local Franchiseoffers a penetrating insight into an organization which, for all its notoriety, is one of the least-understood of our time.

Author Biography

Christina Hellmich is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: September 11th and the Anxious Search for Answers
2. Who is Al-Qaeda?: From Afghanistan to 9/11
3. Hypocrites, Wahhabis and Salafi-Jihadis: Post 9/11 explanations of Al-Qaeda’s ideology
4. Reclaiming the Umma: The ideology of al-Qaeda in the context of the Pan-Islamic Tradition
5. Al-Qaeda Post-9/11: Destroyed, Weakened or Re-emergent?
6. The Future of Al-Qaeda
Bibliography