Al-Qaida after 9/11: The War on Terror and the Decade of Demise (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780755648566)

How did the War on Terror impact Al-Qaida in the decade after 9/11? This is the first book to analyse the inner workings of the group through the eyes of its mid-level leaders in Pakistan, who were, in practice, running al-Qaida's affairs when communications with Osama bin Laden were slow or absent.

The book relies on a large collection of little-known Arabic primary sources about al-Qaida, including the "Abbottabad documents" - the group's own, internal communications between 2002-2011. Al-Qaida's performance is assessed in three areas: the war in Afghanistan; the war in Iraq; and international terrorism. Chapters explain why the group's contributions to the Afghan war were modest, shows the reasons for Al-Qaida's inability to influence events in Iraq, and charts its fading ability to organize international terrorist attacks.

The Abbottabad documents reveal that Al-Qaida's demise after 9/11 was not simply the result of effective counterterrorism. Rather, the group's organizational weaknesses and the fallibilities of individual leaders played a vital role. The book gives us the first glimpse into the instances where bin Laden's lack of strategy meant al-Qaida's mid-level leadership had to grapple with the consequences. It also documents the detrimental impact of the relationship between al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Author: Anne Likuski
ISBN-10: 0755648560
ISBN-13: 9780755648566
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company
Language: English
Published: 02/19/2026
Pages: 264
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.63d