Al Qaeda's Resilience: A Quarter Century After 9/11 The 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks has prompted a flurry of retrospectives on al Qaeda's impact and legacy.
Beneath the surface level analysis, however, lies a more nuanced story – one of adaptability, fragmentation, and an enduring capacity for disruption.
Al Qaeda's origins in the late 1980s as a transnational jihadist network under Osama bin Laden are well documented. Yet, the myth that al Qaeda's power and reach peaked with the 9/11 attacks is overstated.