At a critical moment in world history The Longest War provides the definitive account of the ongoing battle against terror. --Book Jacket.

One key factor that emerged from the various presentations was the sheer variety of issues, leaderships, local security environments, and prospects for the local gorups that are affiliated with Al-Qaida in some way. Other key judgments are also revealed including that Al-Qaida continues to harbor implacable hostility toward the international system, the United States, Israel, and many local governments. Each presentation by the various contributors are represented as separate essays within this text. Regional and territorial maps are interspersed throughout the book to showcase key areas to the group. Some may find interest in the metrics set by Al-Qaida as well as the Goods and Services Exchanged Between Al-Qaida and its partners that are showcased through charts and tables.

Ten years after the 9/11 attacks this book reassesses the effectiveness of the "War on Terror", considers how al-Qaeda and other jihadist movements are faring, explores the impact of wider developments in the Islamic world such as the Arab Spring, and discusses whether all this suggests that a new approach to containing international, especially jihadist, terrorism is needed. Among the book’s many richly argued conclusions are that the "War on Terror" and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have brutalised the United States; that the jihadist threat is not one, but rather a wide range of separate, unconnected struggles; and that al-Qaeda’s ideology contains the seeds of its own destruction, in that although many Muslims are content to see the United States worsted, they do not approve of al-Qaeda’s violence and are not taken in by the jihadists’ empty promises of utopia.

Provides a reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America's long wars with al-Qaeda and its descendants, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive

The news-breaking book that has sent schockwaves through the White House, Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeada's evolution. Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll has spent years reporting from the Middle East, accessed previously classified government files and interviewed senior US officials and foreign spymasters. Here he gives the full inside story of the CIA's covert funding of an Islamic jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, explores how this sowed the seeds of bn Laden's rise, traces how he built his global network and brings to life the dramatic battles within the US government over national security. Above all, he lays bare American intelligence's continual failure to grasp the rising threat of terrrorism in the years leading to 9/11 - and its devastating consequences.

The author re-evaluates the threat posed by Al-Qaeda following a decade of war.

Examines the leadership, ideology, tactics, and finances of Al Qaeda, discusses how the organization trains fighters, and outlines the international response that will be necessary to destroy the organization.