The Al-Qaeda transnational jihadist movement in historical context: understanding and countering religious and secular forms of terrorism

Transnational terrorism promoted by the Al-Qaeda movement gained high-level strategic attention after 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Shanksville, and Arlington in the United States of America that killed at least 3000 people. Attacks by Al-Qaeda inspired groups also occurred in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa. Al-Qaeda which means the ‘base’ or foundation in Arabic was established by Abdullah Yusuf Azam, Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a small group of mujahideen volunteers who fought in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation during the 1980s. Under their leadership the movement expanded its ideology by establishing regional franchises with insurgent groups. The shifting pattern of its activism is highlighted through selected cases of transnational jihadist terrorist Sunni groups in the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa that developed formal links to its senior leaders and facilitated ideological decentralisation whilst drawing from the Salafist model. Many groups used its brand name to conduct terrorist attacks on its behalf. To gain further knowledge and understanding of the scale and security implications of the Al-Qaeda movement’s ideology, comparative analysis has drawn from early forms of religious and secular terrorism to highlight the salience of religious, socio-political, and economic grievances that have formed the basis of insurgencies. Based on grievances, Al-Qaeda’s transnational focus has projected unlimited objectives and differed from domestically focused groups whose campaigns declined or were ended. The Al-Qaeda movement influenced the nature of domestic terrorism by hijacking and redefining its ideological space and narrative and turning it into a global conflict and holy war. This political model was picked up by its more potent and zealous informal affiliate the Islamic State group (IS), successor to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) that sought to establish an Islamic caliphate in Sunni dominated provinces of north western Iraq and eastern Syria. Under the leadership of Abu Bakr Baghdadi the Islamic State group rapidly evolved from near obscurity into a global jihadist insurgent network despite facing heavy criticism from terrorist groups and Muslim communities because of its overly violent image. The Islamic State group’s excessive violence became an extension of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, at the time of growing opposition towards the presence of US-led coalition forces in mid-2003 to 2006. The group’s hardline behaviour surpassed that Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), Al-Qaeda’s informal affiliate that also operated in Syria in 2012. The strategic move by the group to change its name on 29 June 2014 from the Islamic State in Iraq and greater Syria (ISIS) to ‘Islamic State’ group (IS) reflected its transnational ambitions of establishing a caliphate, a move which by 2015 posed greater challenges when compared to earlier affiliates of the Al-Qaeda movement. Al-Qaeda movement framework has posed new challenges for counter-terrorism strategists who had to continually modify policy approaches to deal with its emergent activities. In terms of ideological appeal, the Al-Qaeda brand name may not disappear from the political scene as its religious discourse is likely to inspire new generations of activists.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2016

Executive Summary

This annotated bibliography focuses on the various approaches to studying narrative. It covers the approaches to narrative in an interdisciplinary manner, including the fields of psychology, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, organisation studies, and history. Narrative is an interpretive approach in the social sciences involving storytelling methodology. The story becomes an object of study, focusing on how individuals or groups make sense of events and actions in their lives. The theoretical underpinnings to narrative approaches are outlined as are the applied benefits of storytelling such as how narrative conveys tacit knowledge, how it can enable sense making, and how it constructs identity. The study aims to explore the potential of narrative as a research tool for enhancing Army’s understanding of knowledge acquisition in the context of Battle Command Training

Design and fabrication of a low cost true triaxial cell for testing multiple size specimens

Only a true triaxial cell has the ability to recreate 3D in situ stress conditions. Therefore a true triaxial cell was designed and fabricated. The cell was calibrated to ensure the lateral strains on the specimen were known during testing, and a standard operating procedure was created. The first true triaxial tests in South Australia were conducted. This paper describes the design, fabrication, calibration and preliminary use of a low cost true triaxial cell capable of testing rock specimens of various sizes.A.K. Schwartzkopff, S. Priest & N. Melkoumian, J.A. Egud