The Resurgence of Al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq

By Azeem Ibrahim, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College

The Syrian civil war has allowed al-Qaeda to recover from its setbacks up to 2010. Its main affiliate in the region seems to be testing a new strategy of collaboration with other Salafist-Jihadist groups and a less brutal implementation of Sharia law in areas it controls. In combination, this might allow the Al-Nusrah front to carve out the sort of territorial control of a region (or state) that al-Qaeda has sought ever since its eviction from Afghanistan. On the other hand, Syria has also seen a civil war between two Al-Qaeda inspired factions (Al Nusrah and the Iraq based Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIS]) and indicates there are limits to its ability to cooperate with other anti-Assad factions and gain popular appeal. The extent that the Syrian civil war offers the means for al-Qaeda to recover from its earlier defeats will determine whether the organization has a future, or if it will become simply an ideology and label adopted by various Islamist movements fighting their own separate struggles.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517648823
• ISBN13: 9781517648824
• Release Date: October 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"