Middle East Strategy at Harvard

MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a 29-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency. His new book is The Search for Al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future.

From Bruce Riedel

When I retired from the CIA two years ago, I began researching the statements and writings of the senior Al Qaeda leadership. I found that the picture that emerged from their own words was often very different from the imagery of Al Qaeda conveyed to most Americans, even by experts. Many experts after the 9/11 attacks, for example, argued that Al Qaeda’s primary goal was to evict American troops from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If so, then the terrorists won their war five years ago when the Bush administration withdrew U.S. combat forces from the Kingdom. Of course, this was not the fundamental issue motivating Al Qaeda but a useful tactical rallying cry in a much larger game to evict the United States and its allies from the Muslim world as a whole, overthrow pro-Western regime and destroy Israel. Al Qaeda’s own words had been clear on this from the start.

The Search for Al Qaeda takes the reader into the minds of the leaders of the world’s first global terrorist organization and the perpetrators of the largest mass murder in American history. It uses the words of Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, Mullah Omar and Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi to understand their ideology and the narrative of history that they think justifies their action. By examining their words and their life stories, it exposes the strategy they are pursuing, including its strengths and weaknesses.

Unlike other books on Al Qaeda, the focus is more on what has happened since 9/11 rather than on the road to September 11, 2001. Since 9/11, Al Qaeda’s leadership has written and spoken often about their plans for that day and their plans for the days since. This book looks at that literature in depth and decodes it for those who are not experts in Islamic history and thinking.

The picture that emerges is chilling but realistic. Al Qaeda’s vulnerabilities are highlighted so that an effective grand strategy to defeat the terrorists can be developed: a strategy that seeks to bring together all elements of American leadership—diplomacy, vision, intelligence operations and military force—to defeat this enemy. The central role of our Muslim allies in this battle is explored and a strategy for gaining their assistance is laid out. The critical importance of addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict and stabilizing Pakistan is explained. My hope is that this book will in its own way help both Americans and Muslims understand better how Al Qaeda thinks and thus how to deal with it.

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