Islamic Radicalization and the Global Islamist Movement

This book examines the national security policies and strategies of the United States (U.S.) as they address terrorism and the root causes of terrorism in an information age. It focuses on the root causes of terrorism and the enduring nature of the Global Islamist Movement as manifested by its flagship terrorist organization, al-Qaeda. The thesis summarizes the Global Islamist Movement's historic and theological foundations, its ideology, and its published strategy in order to argue the enduring nature of the movement's threat to U.S. interests globally. The thesis also assesses and identifies shortcomings in various U.S. national security policies with respect to Global Islamist Movement and the terrorism, which it spawns. The book is presented in a deductive manner and argues that globalization and modern social media have empowered this most recent Islamist resurgence in ways which makes its asymmetric strategies and decentralized execution effective. The book leads the reader to conclude that the Global Islamist Movement is an enduring threat to the U.S. and that U.S. national-level policies must specifically acknowledge that threat so subsequent strategies can align the elements of U.S. national power against the threat.