Terrorism and Global Security: A Comparative Analysis of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS)

The transformation of terrorism from Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (IS) has created new security challenges. This article examines the threats posed by these two groups by discussing their ideologies, structures and capabilities. Unlike local terrorist groups like the Afghan Taliban, the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda pose a global threat. The work looked at the origin of Al- Qaeda which cannot be separated from the soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the objective of Al- Qaeda which main purpose is unifying and leading the jihad movement and providing its purpose and direction. The organization of Al- Qaeda was also discuss in this work, which is divided into four levels, which include, core Al- Qaeda, affiliated groups, allied groups and motivated persons and network. This work also assessed the impact of Al- Qaeda in global security, where some scholars argued that the group is not viable enough to pose global threat while others argued against it. On the other hand this work examined the origin of IS which started as a result of U.S military intervention in Iraq in 2003. It also examines resource base of IS and its objectives which is the destruction of the asymmetry status- quo existing for a long between Muslim countries and the Western allies. The impact and threat assessment of Al- Qaeda and IS on global security which we found out is that IS initially was fighting the near enemy in Iraqi and Syrian regimes, but latter changed its strategy by equally focusing on the “far enemy” as well, and manifested in its high profile attacks in Europe and other places beyond the Middle East. Lastly the researcher look at the differences between Al- Qaeda and IS in terms of their structure, brutality, popularity, conceptual difference etc. At the end, this paper recommends that a comprehensive global strategy is required to eradicate this growing menace of organized terrorism.