Tratfor

Al Quaeda confronts the world with a new kind of threat. The perspectives of the historian and the political scientist are both essential in understanding and addressing Al Qaeda and can lead to an understanding of the nature of the threat facing the western world. It is as if the western world got rid of the threat of "Communism" and now a new threat has emerged. Rather it was there all along and has just come back to "haunt us". Some things change , others remain the same. Since the contemporary wave of terrorism , in the Middle East began in 1968 – after the end of the "Six Day War" , no groups resembling "Al Queda" have previously emerged. Al Quaeda has moved beyond terrorism, or the status of terrorism and protest and turned into a global insturment with which to compete and challenge Western influence in the Moslem world. Al Qaeda is a worldwide movement capable of mobilizing a new and hitherto unimagined global conflict. Tratfor www.tratfor.com

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