Nexus of global jihad : understanding cooperation among terrorist actors /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Moghadam, Assaf, 1974- author.
Imprint:New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]
Description:1 online resource (xv, 380 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Series:Columbia studies in terrorism and irregular warfare
Columbia studies in terrorism and irregular warfare.
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11910954
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780231538152
0231538154
9780231165372
0231165374
Digital file characteristics:text file PDF
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
In English.
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Summary:"Leading jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State dominate through cooperation in the form of knowledge sharing, resource sharing, joint training exercises, and operational collaboration. They build alliances and lesser partnerships with other formal and informal terrorist actors to recruit foreign fighters and spread their message worldwide, raising the aggregate threat level for their declared enemies. Whether they consist of friends or foes, whether they are connected locally or online, these networks create a wellspring of support for jihadist organizations that may fluctuate in strength or change in character but never runs dry. [This book] identifies types of terrorist actors, the nature of their partnerships, and the environments in which they prosper to explain global jihadist terrorism's ongoing success and resilience. [This book] brings to light an emerging style of 'networked cooperation' that works alongside interorganizational terrorist cooperation to establish bonds of varying depth and endurance. Case studies use recently declassified materials to illuminate al-Qaeda's dealings from Iran to the Arabian Peninsula and the informal actors that power the Sharia4 movement. The book proposes policies that increase intelligence gathering on informal terrorist actors, constrain enabling environments, and disrupt terrorist networks according to different types of cooperation."--
Other form:Print version: Moghadam, Assaf, 1974- Nexus of global jihad. New York : Columbia University Press, [2017] 9780231165372
Standard no.:10.7312/mogh16537
Review by Choice Review

In this well-researched book, Assaf provides a new conceptual framework of interactions as a key aspect of understanding terrorist threats. He frames the discussion of terrorist cooperation in new ways to provide a comprehensive analysis of how contemporary militant actors cooperate. Understanding this cooperation is of major policy importance because terrorist cooperation defines much of the threat that terrorism poses today. Therefore, the book brings to light emerging patterns of cooperation to establish bonds of varying depth and endurance among terrorist groups. The policies the author proposes are expected to increase intelligence gathering on terrorist actors, constrain their sphere of operation, and disrupt their networks based on the types of cooperation they employ. The author persuasively argues that contemporary terrorist cooperation combines established forms of organizational cooperation, termed networked cooperation, that can feature relationships of varying qualitative strengths. The book attempts to shed new light on the multifarious ways in which terrorists cooperate. Only by grasping the fundamental transformations that terrorist actors have undergone in a constantly shifting environment can the evolution of terrorist cooperation over time be traced and its contemporary forms be understood. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Khodr M. Zaarour, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review