Description
Book SynopsisTwo internationally recognized experts use newly available documents from al-Qaeda and ISIS to explain how jihadist groups think, grow, and adapt. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Thomas Joscelyn recast militant groups as learning organizations, detailing their embrace of strategic, tactical, and technological innovation.
Trade ReviewEnemies Near and Far offers a compelling explanation for the persistence of Al Qaeda and ISIS despite more than twenty years of aggressive U.S. counterterrorism. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Thomas Joscelyn, two leading terrorism experts, explain how jihadist groups innovate and how counterterrorism officials can better anticipate, and disrupt, these deadly organizations. -- Daniel Byman, author of
Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of JihadEnemies Near and Far is an impressively comprehensive overview of terrorism around the world in the modern era. Gartenstein-Ross and Joscelyn’s excellent theoretical framework provides compelling insights to which every policy maker should pay close attention. -- Yasmin Green, director of research and development, Jigsaw (Google)
Very few can master the complexity of the ever-expanding list of local movements, but Gartenstein-Ross and Joscelyn give us an authoritative bird’s eye view of jihadism around the globe, with tremendous access and analysis of important primary sources uncovered in their exhaustive research. -- Craig Whiteside, coauthor of
The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State MovementEnemies Near and Far is a well-researched and comprehensive examination of the organizational culture and strategic preferences of al-Qaeda and the ISIS and their many allies...a conceptual masterpiece. * Small Wars Journal *
Table of Contents1. The Fire Next Time
2. Learning to Win
3. The Far-Enemy Strategy
4. The Unfriendly Skies: Plots Against Aviation
5. The Early Adopter: Anwar al-Awlaki in the Digital Space
6. Strategic Learning: Al-Qaeda and Jihadism in the Arab Spring
7. The Islamic State’s Rise and Rule
8. The
Fitna: ISIS Versus al-Qaeda
9. How al-Qaeda Survived the War in Afghanistan
10. ISIS’s External Operations: A Study in Innovation
11. The Past and Future of Jihadist Organizational Learning
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Index
