Al-Qaeda: its ideology and organizational evolution

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Öğrenci: BURAK GÜNHAN AYDINER

Danışman: HÜSEYİN BAĞCI

Özet:

This thesis analyses al-Qaeda phenomenon in terms of its ideology and organizational evolution. Firstly, ‘true believer perspective’ and ‘rational actor perspective’ will be applied as a theoretical framework to be able to explain al-Qaeda’s ideological character and success of its organizational evolution. Secondly, al-Qaeda’s ideology, i.e. al-Qaedaism, will be analyzed in terms of its key terms and ideologues. Lastly, I will try to answer the question how al-Qaeda has evolved since its foundation by focusing its breaking points in its organizational evolution and what kinds of strategies al-Qaeda formulated each time when it faced a crisis particularly. The thesis argues that while al-Qaeda transforms itself to an ideology, which enables it to inspire many Muslims around the world and make it harder to deal with the organization, it shows the ability to overcome crisis by making the necessary changes in its organizational structure at the same time.