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Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al-Qaida Strategist Abu Mus'ab al-Suri. By Brynjar Lia. New York: Columbia University Press, reprint ed., 2009. 510 pp. $22.50, paper.
This valuable biography of Abu Mus'ab alSuri (Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Sitt Maryam) contributes to the understanding of jihadi strategic thought, an area where incisive and thorough scholarship has been lacking. Suri is a significant jihadi thinker: He was an intellectual pioneer of "leaderless resistance," an increasingly important terrorist strategy.
A professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Lia's main objective "is to discover the man behind the writings and ideas for which he is now renowned." Suri's passionate and rather contrarian personality makes him a fascinating subject of study...