al Qaeda: Beyond Osama-bin Laden
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Shruti Pandalai
Shruti Pandalai is an Associate Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, primarily working on issues closely related to India’s national security and foreign policy. Attached… Continue reading al Qaeda: Beyond Osama-bin Laden read more
“Justice has been done” exclaimed a visibly re-energised but sombre US President, Barack Obama, as impromptu celebrations broke outside the White House. A decade since the “World’s Most Wanted Terrorist” had declared war against the US and made “Jihad global”, bin Laden’s elimination has been touted as “closure”. Conspiracy theories – the “suspect timing” with Obama’s bid for second term closing in, “level of compliance of Pakistani authorities”, “Was Osama’s head the price Pakistan had to pay to save the cracking relationship?”, “is this the master plan to ease Pakistan’s entry and US exit from Afghanistan?” – seem to cloud the right here and now; but naturally. Yet, the importance of this development on the movement of “global jihad” pioneered by Osama and al Qaeda remains a pivotal conceptual question that will require nuanced analysis. The war is not over yet, even Obama says so.
