Chechen jihad : al Qaeda's training ground and the next wave of terror / Yossef Bodansky.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Yossef Bodansky, one of the most respected--and best-informed--experts on radical Islamism in the world today, returns to alert readers to the future course of the struggle between Islamist extremism and the West, by turning the spotlight on the troubled region of Chechnya, which Bodansky pinpoints as the new crucible of terror. Bodansky draws on previously unseen intelligence from his insider sources to offer a portrait of the Chechenization phenomenon and what it means for the United States and the greater war on terror. As he reveals, the final years of US-Soviet relations left Chechnya as a fertile breeding ground for the mujahadin, and in the past decade a combination of militant native Chechen anti-American, anti-Russian agitators and Middle Eastern jihadis have joined forces to help al-Qaeda and the greater Islamist movement pursue its war against the West.--From publisher description.

1. Why Should We Care? -- 2. Legacy and Roots -- 3. Exploiting the Collapse of the Soviet Union -- 4. First Steps toward Jihad -- 5. The Ascent of Islamist-Jihadist Chechnya -- 6. Interlude -- 7. Establishing a Terrorist State -- 8. Escalating and Waiting -- 9. The Slide to Crisis -- 10. The Slide to War -- 11. The Second Chechen War -- 12. War Again -- 13. The Internationalization of the Jihad -- 14. A "New" War -- 15. Money Matters -- 16. The Routine of War -- 17. Chechnya and the Palestinian Problem -- 18. The Chechen Jihad after 9/11 -- 19. Chechenization in Afghanistan -- 20. Moscow Strikes Back in Chechnya -- 21. Strikes in Moscow and in Western Europe -- 22. The Black Widows.