IACSP Homeland Security Bookshelf

This column capsule reviews 13 books on homeland security, terrorism/counterterrorism, and military warfare-related subjects.

Terrorism – General

Enemies Near & Far:How Jihadist Groups Strategize, Plot and Learn

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Thomas Joscelyn, (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2022), 512 pages, $120.00 [Hardcover], $30.00 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-0-2311-9525-6.

Utilizing primary sources from from al Qaida and ISIS, the authors argue that jihadist terrorist groups are ‘learning organizations’ at the strategic and tactical levels of asymmetric warfare against their more powerful adversaries. They are also technologically innovative in their warfare, such as in targeting aircraft for bombings and utilizing the internet to radicalize lone actor adherents into conducting terrorist operations on their own. Much of the book’s is a highly authoritative, comprehensive, and detailed account of terrorist operations by al Qaida and ISIS, which is a major contribution to the literature on these organizations’ warfare against their more powerful state adversaries. Regarding future trends, the authors conclude that how they might evolve will depend on three factors: where they will operate geographically, how they will “present themselves to the outside world”, and “the competition between al-Qaeda and ISIS” (p. 385). Technologically, the two organizations are likely to embark on weaponized drones and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in...