An unparalleled look into the Iraqi insurgency and the multitude of forces that continue to shape it, Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation presents a chilling account of the regrouping of terror networks, and the development of an Iraqi resistance since the invasion by coalition forces over two years ago. One of the world’s leading specialists on terrorism, economist Loretta Napoleoni is uniquely qualified to make sense of the ways in which terror networks do and do not operate in Iraq, and what role they play in the Iraqi resistance.

Insurgent Iraq is predominantly the story of the infamous new face of al Qaeda, al Zarqawi, and of his complicated history and involvement in the region. Napoleoni illustrates how the working class, uneducated Jordanian was propelled into power through the American fabrication that named him the supposed link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to justify the pre-emptive Iraq war. This lethal fabrication, Napoleoni finds, succeeded in constructing a new enemy to represent the terrorist threat, making al Zarqawi the legendary new symbol of the fight against America, and a convenient target to justify assault on Iraq, and demonize the Iraqi resistance. As a result, the construction of al Zarqawi, and his only subsequent rise in Iraq, has helped instigate the escalated violence between the Shi’ite and the Sunni, which operates in a myriad of directions, alongside a continued resistance to coalition forces. Napoleoni warns that al Zarqawi’s agitation of internal conflict in Iraq could ultimately push the country into outright civil war with strong ethnic and religious divides.

Is the insurgency in Iraq a counter-Crusade, a national liberation movement, or a civil war? With a complex understanding of all the intricacies inherent in such a question, Napoleoni provides a mindful discussion, offering a much-needed understanding of how the US occupation of Iraq has catalyzed the cultural, religious, and political divides within the country to create a wholly changed, more volatile landscape. Composed of independent Iraqi Jihadist groups, Islamo-Nationalist and Ba’ath party resistance, ethnic infighting between Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurd, and foreign suicide bombers, the resistance is a divided yet maintains one demand: the end of US occupation.

Overall, Napoleoni offers a break-down of the current political landscape in Iraq, and a renovated al Queda. Insurgent Iraq is a necessary read for anyone concerned with the future of Iraq, or seeking greater insight into the U.S.’s critical role in the Middle East.

Loretta Napoleoni, a former Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics, is an expert on international terrorism who has worked as an economist and foreign correspondent for Italy’s financial papers. As chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, Loretta Napoleoni brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks. She has written novels and guidebooks in Italian, and translated and edited books on terrorism. Her most recent novel, Dossier Baghdad, is a financial thriller set during the Gulf War. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. She is the author of Terror, Incorporated (Seven Stories Press, May, 2005).