The history of Russia’s North Caucasus mujahedin and the emergence of the so-called Caucasus Emirate as part and parcel of the global jihadi revolutionary movement includes but is no longer led by Al Qaeda. This book corrects the inadequate previous treatments of the violence in the Caucasus, almost all of which explain what ought to be called the rise of jihadism in the Caucasus solely in terms of Russian actions. The author brings the international jihadist and local North Caucasian causes back into the picture, detailing the global Jihadist/Islamist revolutionary movement’s propagation of the
jihadi method
and material support to nationalist and Islamic extremists in Chechnya and the Caucasus since the mid-1990s. The jihadi method includes a resonant Islamist theistic ideology, charismatic and mystical religio-political authorities and an effective decentralised organisational and leadership structure. Like jihadi groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Africa, the Caucasus Emirate is an Al Qaeda ally and de facto affiliate. It represents a threat to Russian, U.S. and international security as evidenced by successful (and failed) terrorist plots perpetrated or inspired by it in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Azerbaijan and Boston.