Latest Terrorism Monitor Articles

Chinese Foreign Policy and the War On Terror

Beijing has several global security concerns regarding terrorism. Foremost among these are China's relations with the United States, and since September 2001, the U.S.-led War on Terrorism. Beijing is also worried about the Islamic/Arab World, especially in working to ensure China's supply of oil and... MORE

A Russian Agent At The Right Hand Of Bin Laden?

The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera broadcast an audiotape on December 19, 2003, that was said to be from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the right hand man of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In it, Zawahiri claimed that his group was chasing Americans everywhere, including... MORE

Editor’s Note on Special Issue on Libya

Ruled by an eccentric tyrant, Libya up until the middle of the 1990s was a prolific state sponsor of terrorism. While Qadhafi's gradual rehabilitation in the west may have alleviated fears of Libyan-sponsored terrorism, there is still much to understand about the threats posed by... MORE

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)

Colonel Muammar Qadhafi's decades-long confrontation with the West has never given him much purchase among militant Islamists in Libya. In fact, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG – Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah fi-Libya) has waged a violent insurgency for ten years – with a hostility toward... MORE

Libya and al-Qaeda: A Complex Relationship

The United States, until recently, had a tendency to see Libya's Muammar Qadhafi and Osama bin Laden as ideological soul mates. While bin Laden aspired to cleanse Arabia and the Middle East of the infidel Christian and Jewish influence, Qadhafi aspired to be seen as... MORE

Chechnya’s Abu Walid And The Saudi Dilemma

By M.B. Nokhcho and Glen E. Howard Russia’s brutal five year war in Chechnya has largely been examined in the West as an effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to become an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism. However, the repercussions... MORE

Political Islam in Libya

Libya is an orthodox Sunni Muslim country that broadly follows the Maliki school. Like all the countries of North Africa, Libya experienced an Islamist revival from the late 1970s onwards that expressed itself predominantly through the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslimeen) as well as through a... MORE

Al Qaeda And Maritime Terrorism, Part II

The potential problems posed by sea-borne terrorism are most severe in the 600-mile (1,000-km) long Straits of Malacca, transited by 50,000 ships a year, where a combination of traditional piracy and indigenous Muslim extremist movements combine to make maritime passage of the long, narrow waterway... MORE

Libyan State-Sponsored Terrorism: An Historical Perspective

For decades, the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi maintained a well documented history of extensive state sponsorship of terrorism. Tacit support, close cooperation, and moral encouragement for a number of terrorist movements and organizations throughout the years have often times served a number of... MORE

Russia And The War On Terror: Not A Trusted U.s. Ally

It is widely believed that cooperation in fighting international terrorism and the development of global energy resources are the two main pillars of U.S.-Russian relations post September 11. The firmness of this foundation, however, has been eroded by the continuing disagreements between Moscow and Washington... MORE