JIHADISTS OF NORTH AFRICA AND THE SAHEL, local politics and rebel groups

349pp., map, paperback, Cambridge, 2020

Alexander Thurston draws on case studies from North Africa and the Sahel - including Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania - in this study of jihadist movements over the past three decades.

"Based on hard-won field research, this outstanding book uncovers the hidden politics of jihadist organizations in North Africa and the Sahel. Thurston’s masterful study demonstrates that jihadist commanders are political actors facing complex local pressures to adapt and accommodate. An essential read for security scholars and practitioners alike." Aisha S. Ahmad, University of Toronto

"The question of how to understand jihadi groups - global or local, as entirely distinctive by virtue of their unique ideology or as political groups that face the same basic challenges and opportunities as other insurgencies - has vexed scholars for decades. Thuston’s remarkable contribution is to show us how to take them seriously as ideologues and political actors, as believers and sophisticated political entrepreneurs and coalition-builders. In doing so, he offers us a new way to understand why some thrive and grow, and others fracture or fade." Brandon Kendhammer, Ohio University

Alexander Thurston is Visiting Assistant Professor of African Studies at Georgetown University. In 2013-2014, he was an International Affairs Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.