Strategic redirection of Al-Qaeda: from the leadership of Osama bin Laden to mass- dimension?

Abstract

This article seeks to establish the relationship of global strategic variables of Al-Qaeda with religious ideology, political Islam, trying to incorporate a cross section and total phenomenon. It argues that the link lies in the expansion strategy and top-down decentralization created by the central base of Al-Qaeda, where regional networks have some autonomy but are determined by the central leadership and his adaptation of the Islamist ideology to an internationalist shed, revolutionary and violent organization.

Keywords

• Al-Qaeda
• Islam
• international terrorist networks
• USA
• asymmetrical balance
• counter-terrorism strategy.