Al Qaeda’s Odyssey to the Global Jihad

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

By Yoram Schweitzer, Aviv Oreg

9/11 established global terror as a top-priority issue in many countries, even making it a benchmark for foreign relations between the U.S. and others – all based on their commitment to the war on terror. Modern international terrorist has already become an important element in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, along with the appearance of ultra nationalistic, far left terror organizations who carried out international attacks. It’s clear, though, that the importance of terror and its implications to national security rose considerably after after 9/11. The unique status of the terror threat was derived the massive and traumatic loss of life, all caused by a few fearless and suicidal people in the middle of an American metropolis.

The images reached every living room around the world, recreated later in documentaries and spawning films that described the attack and the organization responsible for it. All this was accompanied al-Qaeda itself repeatedly threatening to attack again if its demands weren’t met. In this was al-Qaeda managed to create a shock wave that far outgrew any physical, economic and moral damage it caused. International terrorism was now seen as demonic and extremely powerful, threatening to drown the world in rivers of blood.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

In 2013, al-Qaeda marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment and twelve years since the September 11 attacks. Despite a massive international campaign against it, al-Qaeda and its affiliates continue to be responsible for most of the acts of terror in the world today. This memorandum explains how one organization has become an influential worldwide phenomenon, earned the title of “the global jihad movement,” and succeeded – more than any other terrorist element in modern history – to plague the world’s leading countries and engage them in costly and bloody encounters worldwide.

Memorandum No. 132, Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies, January 2014

For the full memorandum (in Hebrew) click here