Al Qaeda and Fourth Generation Warfare as its Strategy

Abstract

Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda have been waging war against the United States and the West for years. Al Qaeda is characterized as a terrorist organization, based upon the early tactics it used, primarily bombings against U.S. interests overseas. However, since the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban government and evict Al Qaeda, there has been more attention given to Al Qaeda and its adoption of a strategy against the U.S. and West. A senior member of Al Qaeda has professed that they have adopted Fourth Generation Warfare and are using its theory as a model for their global insurgency. This paper seeks to identify whether Al Qaeda actually following the elements of Fourth Generation Warfare and what the U.S. might do to counter AI Qaeda's strategy.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA491342

Entities

People

  • Clayton L. Niles

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Africa
  • Air Force
  • Army Personnel
  • Birds
  • Explosive Devices
  • Explosives
  • Geographic Regions
  • Governments
  • Human Intelligence
  • Middle East
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.