As the vision of the crumbling Twin Towers slowly recedes from the collective memory of the American nation, the constellation of beliefs that set that destructive force in motion nearly a decade ago is still very much alive. Centuries ago, the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu famously warned that we could only hope to win wars consistently when we knew both ourselves and our enemies; if we did not know our enemies, even our superior strength would not guarantee a victory. Ever since the horrific September day of 2001, the number of books on jihad and the jihadis has grown so much that processing the knowledge generated sometimes seems like trying to drink at the head of a fire hose—and much of the furious outpouring of words generates little by way of increased understanding. In this burgeoning area of study, Jarret M. Brachman's book should stand out for its contribution to our understanding of the global jihadism. Brachman, the director of research in the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, explains the movement with a deep understanding of both Islamic theology and the operatives who spread the flames of rebellion all over the world.

Before proceeding, it is important to acknowledge that the terms “jihad” and jihadism,” despite their widespread use, are problematic within the Islamic religious context. Brachman (p. 4) is certainly not unaware of this, and points out that “Jihadism is a clumsy and controversial term.” The term, when used by the Islamic radicals, should be understood less in its religious and more in its political context. In fact, recently, the Obama administration stopped using the terms “jihad” and the “global war on terror” in speeches and replaced them with the “war with Al Qaeda.” Jihad, however, has a strong religious implication within Islam, and the role it plays in inciting people cannot be fully appreciated without a deep theological and historical understanding. Brachman carefully analyzes the term and demonstrates great divisions based on its interpretation within the radical Islamic movement.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part explores the ideological imperatives laid out by the Islamic scholars exhorting the believers to join in a violent global uprising. The second part examines the strategies used by the leadership of the radical movement to achieve their religio-political aims. The followers are urged to join jihad by the use of Islamic religious words and phrases, such as takfir (the apostate), tawhid (unity of God), and al-Wala wal-bara (roughly, meaning an unquestioned loyalty to Allah and the Shari'a—the Islamic code of law—and a disavowal of anything that contradicts them). The theological justification of jihad is based on these and similar concepts.

What we call jihadism is known as Salafism within the Islamic tradition. Salafism—the call to go back to the time of the “righteous ones,” the companions of the Prophet—is almost as old as the religion itself. The contemporary followers of Salafism share some of the broad tenets but are hardly unanimous in their understanding of its meaning or strategies to achieve it. For them, perhaps no concept is more controversial than takfir, whereby another Muslim or the rulers of an Islamic nation are declared as apostate and killing them can be seen as a part of one's religious obligation. As a result, their differences often show up as open hostilities among the various jihadi groups.

Brachman is particularly insightful in explaining why Al Qaeda and other affiliated groups have been so successful in mobilizing Islamic youths, focusing on both the presence of a consistent theory steeped deeply in the theological texts and the emergence of a number of excellent strategists who could translate inflammatory acts—whether the invasion of Muslim countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan or the killing of Muslims by nonbelievers in Palestine, Bosnia, and Kashmir—into causes célèbres of global jihad.

The author's expertise is evident not only in his explanation of jihadist ideology but in his knowledge of the personalities not readily recognizable in the West. As he points out (p. 6), “existing literature on global jihadist movement tends to focus on the high-profile personalities, like Usma Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,” and little has been written, at least outside of the Islamic world, about the broader cohort of ideologues and activists central to the jihadist movement. He fills this need by providing a detailed discussion of a number of key players whose names are, by and large, obscure to the Western audience.

Brachman's thoughtful analysis illuminates the political and ideological dynamics of a global jihadist movement that continues to mobilize activists, organize terrorist operations, and present security challenges to a range of states. For the serious student of the radical Islamic movement, this book is an essential read. However, while Brachman's explanation of the jihadist doctrine is one of the best I have encountered, his biographical sketches of jihadist operatives often read like official memos. While this method of presentation has certain advantages, especially for readers who are practitioners of counterterrorism, scholars looking for a more thematic and theoretically integrated discussion may be disappointed.

Scholarly readers will also be disappointed by the book's index, which seems hastily put together without a great deal of thought. Indeed, the book is more a contribution to policy debates than it is to academic discussion of global jihad, transnationalism, and international politics. When read in this light, Global Jihadism represents an especially important contribution. And if those policymakers whose job it is to respond to global jihadism read this book and learn from it, as they should, then Brachman's efforts will be vindicated, and the ghost of Sun Tzu would be pleased.