Al-Qaeda, Salafi Jihadism and American Policy in the Greater Middle East

Abstract

Abstract:While al-Qaeda is a product of specific circumstances in the Middle East, the bitter irony of its September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States is that American policy in the region before those attacks unwittingly contributed significantly to its birth and development and that American policy subsequent to the attacks created new opportunities for similar organizations to flourish, even as al-Qaeda itself lost ground to those organizations. Organizationally and ideologically, al-Qaeda was the product of the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the successful war against Iraq in 1990-91, the two most prominent success stories in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. This essay will treat Washington's unintentional participation in the development of al-Qaeda and the group's ideological development in an analytical narrative of the founding, growth, success and eventual decline of what for Americans is the prototypical terrorist organization of the 21st century.