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The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda Hardcover – 22 Sep 2011

by
Fawaz A. Gerges (Author)
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Fawaz A. Gerges (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: OUP USA (22 Sept. 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0199790655
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199790654
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 2.3 x 14.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 810,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

... a masterly and trenchant account of the origins of al Qaeda and its decline after 9/11. (Foreign Affairs)

Worth reading (The Economist)

About the Author

Fawaz A. Gerges is Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics. His books include Journey of the Jihadist and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global.

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsCuts the Al-Qaeda Bogeyman Down to Size
By F Henwood TOP 1000 REVIEWER on 15 Jan. 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
What sort of threat is Al-Qaeda today? Many commentators (especially in the United States) regard it as a cosmic menace, lurking everywhere, plotting to kill civilians en masse. Informed by this perception, a counter-terrorism bureaucracy has proliferated in the United States - 200 plus counter-terrorist organizations established since 9/11. In addition, the US has spent between one and three trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars justified in part as wars against 'terror' generally and Al-Qaeda specifically. Judging then by the resources allocated to fighting it, one might well conclude it is a most serious threat.

While terrorism is a real hazard, Fawaz A. Gerges shows that the perception of Al Qaeda as an existential threat is vastly overblown. Al Qaeda is a busted flush. The organisation has been degraded by a combination of ideological bankruptcy and external pressure. Military and police action has contributed to this but the organisation's fundamental weaknesses were and are political and ideological. Al-Qaeda's ambition to be the vanguard of a mass Muslim uprising, leading a transnational Jihad against the West, has failed.

But such a vision never had much credibility in the first place. Al-Qaeda was born out the defeat of armed Jihad in places like Algeria and Egypt in the 1990s, and its failure to make any headway elsewhere, like Indonesia. Its foundation in the badlands of Afghanistan in the 1990s was a marriage of convenience between two fugitives, the Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Saudi Osama Bin Laden, both of whose respective ambitions to topple the secular Egyptian and theocratic Saudi regimes had failed. Their joining forces in the 1990s was a desperate attempt to revive their flagging struggles.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting but more for students of the Middle East
By Amazon Customer on 19 Mar. 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I bought this book while I was in Jordon and have found it illuminating, although at times rather heavy weather. It is well researched and has one basic message, Al-Qaeda is not all its cracked up to be. Once you have absorbed that fact I found the book a bit boring. I was hoping for more details on the internal working of Al-Qaeda, particularly on the run up to Sept 11th.. I struggled a bit with all the Middle Eastern names, a problem not just associated with this book. It might have been helpful to have a Whose Who and pictures somewhere in the book so readers can understand the significance of each person. If you are au-fait with the Middle East and dont get confused between people it will be a lot easier to follow. Students may find this book useful and I am certainly more relaxed about Al-Qaeda than I used to be.
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4.0 out of 5 starsa good book
By johnho on 9 Jun. 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
its a book people should read and have to learn about the world outside our own windows, so glad he took the time to write it and open my eyes, im english and only hear the BBC reporting, so when this pops up, i get my mind opened
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent
By Mr. Gavin E. Hall on 13 Jan. 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Very well written and argued, Compliments the Far Enemy superbly in providing a clear picture of just what threat Al Qaeda, esp Al Qaeda Central, plays in the modern world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Amazon.com: 3.8 out of 5 stars 11 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Paints Broad and Compelling Canvas 16 Nov. 2011
By William B. Messmer - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Fawaz Gerges has written a compelling and detailed analysis of Al-Qaeda, the broader Middle East, and American foreign and security policy related to both. At its core this most well written and read-able book (it is absorbing enough to be finished in an evening) is an up-to-date study of key personalities and events of bin Laden's organization and its development and decline. Based on numerous interviews and an awareness of the broader literature on the topic, this study measures the strengths and weaknesses of Al-Qaeda against a well-painted portrait of today's events and motive forces in the Middle East. It is full of recent history as well as contemporary references to the Arab Spring, drone attacks, bin Laden's killing, and their influence from the Pakistani rimlands to Libya. As important is the book's very insightful analysis of the evolution of America's security and foreign policy toward the region, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, that followed the original 9/11 events.
Gerges' book, full of accessible critcal analysis and opinion, would be an excellent addition to any university seminar on the topic. It would also serve as a solid introduction to a casual reader wanting to enrich their own understanding of today's world.
4.0 out of 5 stars Dispels Myths 17 May 2013
By Casey Hicks - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Gerges completely turns what he calls the "terrorist narrative" on its head. He exposes al-Qaeda to be a numerically and structurally weak organization that holds no threat at present. Including citing that al-Qaeda only has around 300 fighting members at the moment.

Very good book, the only downside is it's shortness. A little more time could have been spent on each chapter.
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read 27 Mar. 2013
By Mark P. Sweeney - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
If you are interested in this topic, definitively get this book. It gives a different perspective on Al-Qaeda. Most books speak of this organization in an attitude that desires to illicit fear. This book does the complete opposite. It is a must read. The reason I gave it 4 stars was because sometimes his ideas get a little repetitive. Other then that, it should definitely be bought.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Homeland Security Should Read This Book 27 Oct. 2011
By The Peripatetic Reader - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book is a well-rearched, even-handled examination of Al-Qeda, and shatters the misconceptions citizens and politicians have had on the "Islamic threat." As Gerges documents, the threat is there, there will likely be future events of terrorism, but there is no monolithic world-wide organization behind these acts. Instead, the groups are fragmentary. The actors are not sophisticated wide-eyed terrorists. The members of these ad-hoc organizations in fact are largely uneducated and frankly incompetant. What they have been very good at doing is scaring the begeezers out of the Western world, such that we are all afraid of our own shadows and are happy to destroy our own constitutional principles for the sake of feeling safe. In this respect Al Qeda has been very successful. The author details how since 9 11 the defense and counter-terrorism industry has mushroomed. Much like Dorothy ultimately finding out that the Wizard of Oz is actually a small, insignificant person, this book reveals Al-Qeda for what it is, a bunch of thugs increasingly excluded by their own peoples and lacking any legitmate purpose.
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars 13 Aug. 2014
By Sigrun I Jonsdottir - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Very good
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