The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death

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.

About the Author :
Bruce Hoffman is a professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and the director of its Center for Security Studies and the Security Studies Program as well as a senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. He was scholar-in-residence for counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2004 to 2006 and is the author of the highly praised Inside Terrorism.Fernando Reinares is a professor of political science and security studies at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos as well as a senior analyst on global terrorism at Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid, Spain. Between 2004 and 2006, he served as senior advisor on counterterrorism policy to Spain's Ministry of Interior. He is the author of two Spanish best-sellers on ETA and the Madrid train bombings respectively.

Review :
The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat offers the definitive account of al-Qaeda's plots in the post-9/11 era. Bruce Hoffman, Fernando Reinares, and the volume's other noted experts provide detailed analyses of al-Qaeda-linked plots around the world, making a compelling case that the al-Qaeda core remains an active terrorism threat to governments everywhere.--Daniel Byman, Georgetown University, and senior fellow, Brookings Institution Leading authorities on terrorism ably dissect the exact scope and nature of the threat posed by al-Qaeda and allied groups in the decade after 9/11 in a work that is both comprehensive and authoritative.--Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad