Contents:  1. Assessing the war on terror/Mohammed Ayoob. 2. The war on terror: comparisons with the cold war/Mark N. Katz. 3. Understanding Al-Qaeda: disentangling myth from reality/Fawaz A. Gerges. 4. Afghanistan: The first theater of the war/Michael Semple.  5. Pakistan: perfidious ally in the war on terror/C. Christine Fair. 6. The Arab world: grappling with multiple consequences/Andrew Flibbert. 7. Iran and Turkey: Pivotal regional powers/Mohammed Ayoob. 8. Europe: reinforcing existing trends/Rik Coolsaet. 9. The United States: civil society’s defense of the rule of law/David Cole. 10. Trapped, or not, in the legacy of the war on terror/Ian S. Lustick. List of Acronyms. Bibliography. Index.

Was the US-led war on terror, especially the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, a necessary response to the September 11 terrorist attacks? What did the two invasions accomplish? How have the fortunes of Al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations been affected? The authors of this important contribution to ongoing debates address these questions as they assess the impact and implications of the war on terror for the Middle East, for Europe and for the United States itself.