Fighting the far enemy

: making sense of al-Qaeda and Islamic State's violence in the West post-9/11

Abstract

Despite the large amount of literature published on al-Qaeda and Islamic State post-9/11, a surprisingly neglected topic has been the question of their violence’s strategic logic, particularly in the context of the West. In response, this thesis offers an exploratory study into this question by systematically analysing a sample of what were identified to be some of the groups’ key statements and publications.

Conceptually, this research applies an instrumental approach to studying al-Qaeda and Islamic State’s terrorism where their actions are understood to be strategic violence deployed in the furtherance of politico-religious objectives. Applying a simple understanding of strategy, where strategy is seen to be the attempt to align available means with desired ends, this research focuses on four key questions. How have al-Qaeda and Islamic State framed the West in its current form as a problem? Why is terrorist violence seen to be necessary to respond to this problem? What is claimed to be this violence’s underlying strategic logic? And what means of violence (weapons) are propagated, and how are these intended to support the identified strategies? Additionally this research analyses if, and if so how, the response to these questions has changed over time. Although notable differences are identified between al-Qaeda and Islamic State, what emerges is that internally, both al-Qaeda and Islamic State have remained surprisingly consistent when it comes to their objectives, logics and justifications for violence.

This research also applies what Juergensmeyer and Sheikh refer to as the sociotheological approach to analysing religious violence. Here, religious violence is understood to follow a “rational” logic, but only when placed within the normative-epistemological worldviews within which the actor operates. In the conclusion, this research also identifies opportunities for future research stemming from this initial exploratory study.

Date of Award	2 Dec 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Bernhard Blumenau (Supervisor) & Peter Lehr (Supervisor)