Al Qaeda Today: Transitions and Trajectories

Since the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden by the US Seal Team Six in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the composition and character of the aforementioned terrorist group has undergone several changes. Three years since bin Laden’s death and the change in leadership to Ayman al-Zawahiri, there is an apparent difference in the former’s al Qaeda, and the latter’s al Qaeda. Although these changes had begun much before bin Laden’s death, the transition sped up soon after his death. What is the nature of the present-day al Qaeda? What are the structural and changes it has undergone as an organisation, and where does the network stand, in times of globalisation of terror? This paper attempts to answer those questions.