"By far, the most dramatic trend related to the location of suicide attacks is the gradual shift of incidents from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Between July 2007 and June 2008, the last one-year period for which data on suicide attacks are available, 58.2% of suicide attacks struck Iraq, and 36.6% struck Afghanistan and Pakistan. This compares to a much wider gap between suicide attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan in the preceding year (July 2006 to June 2007), when 69.3% of attacks took place in Iraq, and 25.1% in Afghanistan and Pakistan...."

The global proliferation of suicide missions in recent years is a phenomenon that the occupation and outbidding theses cannot fully explain. A comprehensive analysis of 1,857 suicide attacks from December 1981 to March 2008 shows that al-Qaida’s evolution into a global terrorist actor and the growing appeal of its ideology, Salafi jihad, are interrelated factors that have contributed to the proliferation of suicide attacks. This is the first article to test the argument that many suicide attacks can be attributed to jihadist groups, creating a need for states to rethink their counterterrorism efforts—and to better convey to moderate Muslims and nonviolent Salafists the importance of challenging these groups.

This groundbreaking volume examines the rise and spread of suicide attacks over the past decade. Sorting through 1,270 terror strikes between 1981 and 2007, Assaf Moghadam attributes their recent proliferation to the mutually related ascendance of al Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi Jihad, an extreme interpretation of Islam that rejects national boundaries and seeks to create a global Muslim community. This unflinching analysis provides new information about the relationship between ideology and suicide attacks and recommends policies focused on containing Salafi Jihadism.

"To those who are disoriented by modernity, the Salafi-jihad provides a new sense of self-definition and belonging in the form of a membership to a supranational entity....the United States and its allies should grasp every opportunity to highlight the disastrous consequences that Salafi-jihadist violence has wrought on the everyday lives not only of Westerners, but first and foremost on Muslims themselves....It is a fact that al-Qa`ida and associated groups offer no vision for Muslims other than perennial jihad—hardly an appealing prospect."

"Some have argued that ending occupation in Iraq and other places is the key to solving the jihadist problem. But we should be disabused of the belief that withdrawal alone will appease the new martyrs. Instead, the countries affected by suicide attacks must step up the battle for the hearts and minds of alienated young Muslims. This war of ideas should expose the hypocrisy of global jihad, but it must also consist of a more sensitive engagement with the Muslim world."

In March 2005, International Security Program research fellows Ersel Aydinli and Assaf Moghadam participated as co-instructors in a week-long pilot course on defense against suicide bombings. Organized by the Centre of Excellence- Defence Against Terrorism (CoE-DAT) in Ankara, Turkey, the seminar was one of the first projects of its kind. Its aim was to familiarize representatives of the military and police forces of over 35 NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries with the causes, nature, tactics, and possible responses to suicide attacks.