Fawaz A. Gerges holds the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence, New York. His books include Jouney of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (2006) and America and Political Islam: Clash of Interests or Clash of Cultures? (Cambridge, 1999). He was educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics and has previously been a Research Fellow at Harvard University, Massachusetts and Princeton University, New Jersey. He was also a senior analyst and regular commentator for ABC television news. He has written extensively on Arab and Muslim politics, social movements, American foreign policy, and relations between the world of Islam and the Christian West. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Baltimore Sun, The Independent, Al Hayat, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Survival and others. Gerges has been the recipient of a MacArthur, Fullbright and Carnegie Fellowships and his books have been translated into a number of foreign languages.

Introduction: the road to September 11 and after; 1. Religious nationalists and the near enemy; 2. The Afghan war: sowing the seeds of transnational Jihad; 3. The rise of transnationalist Jihadis and the far enemy; 4. Splitting up of Jihadis; 5. The aftermath: the war within; 6. The Iraq war: planting the seeds of Al Qaeda's second generation?