In her new book, Anne Likuski explores how the 'War on Terror' impacted al-Qaida's senior leadership in Pakistan in the decade after 9/11. The book is the first to analyze the inner workings of al-Qaida 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, which were found in the house of Osama bin Laden when he was killed in 2011.
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Likuski argues 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.
Anne Likuski is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI). She specializes in the history, leadership and ideology of al-Qaida and jihadism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She is the author of the book Al-Qaida in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
You will be able to purchase the book at a discount at the event.