Al Qaeda's Center Of Gravity Case Study

a. Was published shortly after the landslide victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1936

The book “How Terrorism End; Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns”, written in 2011 at the height of Al-Qaeda, the most well-known international terrorist group of our time. The author of this work, Audrey Cronin, at the time of print, served as a professor of strategy at the United States National War College in Washington D.C., and a senior associate at Oxford University’s Changing Character of War Program. Both positions allowed her to impact strategic policy making in the execution of the Global War on Terror by allowing her access to senior military and civilian policymakers. Her previous area of her prior work has been mainly focused on international terrorism with an emphasis on al-Qaeda. She has authored

The rise of Al Qaeda is an instrumental starting point in providing context to this discussion as the group was held responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Al Qaeda’s upcoming was accelerated after 10 years of conflict (from 1978 until 1989) in Afghanistan between the Soviets and Afghan insurgent groups. The Communist Government

Before the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda’s history is packed with mostly unsuccessful attempts to fulfill its most enduring goal: the unification of other militant Islamic groups under its strategic leadership. Osama Bin Laden’s efforts to build an “Islamic Army” began in the mid-1990s when he was based in Sudan. However, his mission failed because he had no ideology around which to build unity and attract new fighters and other terrorist organizations.

To understand the convoluted events of Al-Qaeda’s reign of terror on America I had to delve into the history of Al-Qaeda’s origins and

In his 1996 FATWA, Usama bin Laden placed personal responsibility upon each individual Muslim to unify and fight oppressive forces, particularly the United States. With this FATWA comes the distinction of the “near” and “far” enemy, an innovative philosophy utilized by bin Laden and Al Qaeda that illustrates the overarching oppressive nature of the United States to Salafi Jihadist sympathizers. Integrating this ideology into the Salafi Jihadist movement is particularly useful for terrorist organizations, as their fighters—particularly their suicide bombers—are ideologically validated for their actions, and are confident that they will receive a reward in the afterlife should they strike against the enemy.

Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, America has been on edge about the topic of terrorism. Groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, and now more recently, ISIS, has kept the world cautious of their every next move. Looking more closely into how these groups are formed and operate could help us better understand how they can be stopped. Studying the history of terrorist organizations can help us better predict the future of terrorist organizations.

There are several terrorist groups throughout the world today. All the terrorist groups have one common goal and that is to rid the world of Americans and western influence from the Muslim world. There is one organization that has ties to most of all the terrorist groups in the world and is the most infamous group in the world today and that is the group called Al-Qaeda The word Al-Qaeda means “the base” in Muslim. As an international terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden. The group seeks to rid Muslim countries of western influence and replace them with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. Al-Qaeda grew out of the of the ashes of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1988, after it helped expel the Soviet

A lot of times people make single stories about people based on their skin color and for Tom Robinson it was true. The Maycomb community singled out Tom and did not treat him with any respect because of his skin color. “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?”(Lee 264). When Tom went to testify and said he felt sorry for mayella the lawyer almost laughed at him because of how disrespectful he is. He thought that there was no way a black man could feel sorry for a white woman, almost like it was impossible for them. What they didn’t understand is that Tom felt sorry for her because she sees him hurting and no one else can figure it out. No matter what his skin color is he sees what is going on and feels sorry that Mayella has to live

Although today’s terrorist organizations are unpredictable and employ unconventional means to fight, analyzing and understanding their center of gravity can aid in their eventual defeat because, as a source of power, an organizations Center of Gravity provides them with the moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in

Most traditional upbringings include a few key life lessons. Among these is a sense of paying it forward. There are many different proverbs to describe this occurrence; “Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you,” and “One good turn deserves another,” The idea of reciprocity is such a generalized norm that people often don’t realize that they partake in this behavior. These reciprocal behaviors can often be very simple; holding a door, offering favors, and sharing some of your time can help to establish equity in relationships. People keep track of the good things done for them so that they can pay back these good deeds. Being indebted to anyone is a situation most people are uncomfortable with.

Attacks receive more coverage when they harm or kill victims, involve hijackings or aircraft, have known perpetrators, and select targets associated with Western countries. A study of transnational terrorism shows that attacks that inflict injuries are twice as likely to attract media attention as those that do not. The attacks in which the perpetrator can be identified are four times as likely to be reported in a newspaper and ten times as likely to be reported on television (The Media’s Role in International Terrorsim). Attacks in the Middle East or Europe are twice as likely to receive media attention as attacks perpetrated in Latin America (The Media’s Role in International Terrorism). There are very similar factors that influence media coverage of attacks that take place within the United States.

Differing accounts on either pole focus on al-Qaeda’s continued relevance as the premier terrorist network, whether it is any longer effective or not. From there, the natural conclusion comes around to asking how effective al-Qaeda is, and by which mechanisms does it project that effectiveness. Aside from this, both parties agree that al-Qaeda has an uncanny habit of surviving in the turbulent international dialectic that spawned radical Muslim distress, vicariously.

Besides friends using social media to connect with other friends or families keeping in touch with other relatives who are at a distance, in the recent years, terrorists have taken advantage of social media and used it as a platform to threaten and send jaw dropping messages to some of the most popular outlets across the nation. For this paper, I will examine how terrorists have used social media as propaganda. I will also analyze the trends in media and terrorism, and how it has provided access for the promotion of the violent messages as well as allowing the news of terrorist attacks and assassinations to reach many parts of the world within a matter of minutes.