Since its birth in Peshawar, Pakistan, on 11 August 1988, Al Qaeda has suffered a series of significant splits and losses. Despite this, it has demonstrated its resilience. A by-product of the anti-Soviet multinational Arab mujahidin campaign, the group has sustained its momentum as an ideological and an operational vanguard. Whenever Al Qaeda suffered the loss of operational capability, heightened motivation has always enabled the group to recover.

Nonetheless, the death of Osama bin Laden on 1 May 2011 may be different. Osama—or “bin Laden”, as the West calls him—had been, until his death, the principal architect of Al Qaeda. He was also the unifier of the network of like-minded groups in Asia, Caucasus, Africa and the Middle East, and the driver of a global movement of supporters and sympathisers. Is his death a killer blow? Will core Al Qaeda, the Al Qaedadirected network of groups, and the Al Qaeda-inspired global movement recover from this loss?

Al Qaeda at the Core

Al Qaeda is managed by an Emir (Commander or Prince) responsible to the Majlis Shura (General Command Council). Of the ten members that staff the council, six of them head committees—the military; security and intelligence; administration and finance; fatwa; information; and political. The six committees were headed by Osama from Saudi Arabia (Political Committee), Ayman al Zawahiri from Egypt (Information Committee), Subhi Abd Al Aziz Abu Sita alias Muhammed Atef from Egypt (Military Committee), Mustafa Abu Al Yazid alias Sheikh Sai'd from Egypt (Administration and Finance Committee), Saif al Adel from Egypt (Security and Intelligence Committee) and Abu Hafs from Mauritania (Religious Committee).

Today, the ideological virus of “global jihad” spread by Al Qaeda has spread both in the global south and in the global north.