AK, Three Clips, and a Koran: Deciphering Al Qaeda's Principles of War

摘要

Many papers and reports have been written on Al Qaeda and the western principles of war. Government agencies and universities throughout the world work hard to analyze the background of Al Qaeda to better understand the organization and where its next strike might occur. At the same time, theorists and academics debate whether the principles of war debated since the time of Clausewitz still apply to the modern battles that we face against Al Qaeda. Very little work has been done combining these two topics to determine if Al Qaeda has unique principles of war and if so, what can be done about them. This paper defines what a principle of war is and then analyzes Al Qaeda's principles of war by comparing them to the accepted western principles of war as stated in the latest version of the US Army Field Manual 3-0 Operations. It also looks at what can be done, once Al Qaeda's principles of war are determined, to gain the upper hand in the Global War on Terror.