The definitive work on Al Qaeda, this book is based on five years of research, extensive interviews with its members and field research in Al Qaeda supported conflict zones across the globe. A study bringing to light Al Qaeda's financial infrastructure and how the organisation trains combat soldiers and vanguard fighters for multiple guerrilla, terrorism and semiconventional campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans.

In addition, ROHAN GUNARATNA investigates the clandestine Al Qaeda operational network in the West, and shows that for Al Qaeda to be destroyed or seriously weakened there needs to be a multipronged, multiagency and multinational response by the international community.