The Al-Qaeda Doctrine

Reviews / Votes

One way or another, terrorism revolves around the terrorist's message. Donald Holbrook dissects with precision and insight the evolution of Al-Qaeda's message. Anyone with serious ambitions of understanding the world's most important terrorist movement will need to read this book. Essential and ground-breaking. * Professor Andrew Silke, University of East London, UK * Violence always calls for justification. The two supreme leaders of Al-Qaeda have put together a compelling narrative that has inspired and mobilised thousands of young Muslims, turning them into violent jihadists. Dr. Holbrook has painstakingly dissected Bin Ladin's and Ayman al-Zawahiri's public messages, providing us with a clear exposition of Al-Qaeda's evolving ideological discourse. A must read for those who wish to understand and counter Al-Qaeda's agenda and worldview. * Prof. em. Alex P. Schmid, Editor-in-Chief, Perspectives on Terrorism * In this impressive monograph, the author draws on often overlooked statements and communiques by the senior leadership of Al-Qaeda, providing the most comprehensive and definitive study of the Al-Qaeda doctrine to date. The analysis presents a key to unlocking both the wider ideological contours which have informed the formation, growth, and appeal of violent Islamist activism, and the beliefs and ideas which the Al-Qaeda leadership have deployed to support their movement. Written in accessible prose, this is a significant study and a major contribution to scholarship which will be widely read by students and scholars alike. * Dr Cerwyn Moore, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, POLSIS, University of Birmingham, UK * The Al-Qaeda Doctrine represents an important contribution to the literature in its masterful dissection and analysis of that movement's violent Islamist discourse. It thus sheds new light on the mindset and thought processes of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri as well as on the narrative that has sustained and replenished al-Qaeda throughout its history. * Bruce Hoffman, Professor and Director of Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies *