In conclusion, a new way of looking at al-Qaida as a phenomenon would be to abandon the idea of a central group, an ideology and even of affiliates, and to see instead a huge matrix of interlocking networks all of which evolve simultaneously and in response to each other and to outside pressures informed by a common culture. Naturally individuals with particular resources – charisma, cash, learning, security, credibility – draw networks together and create nodes.
Clusters of these nodes form something that, at least from outside, looks like an organisation. One such cluster is currently centred on the Pakistani tribal zones. Another, somewhat less dense, is centred on Yemen. A third, less dense still, is in Somalia. Nodes that existed earlier in the decade in Algeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have now largely broken up. In the chaotic, shifting, multivalent world that is contemporary Islamic militancy we can expect the nodes that currently exist to break up too at some stage. Others inevitably will reform elsewhere. Predicting how and when they do so will not be an easy task.
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