ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the transmutations of Al Qaeda by addressing core questions of interest for security professionals and academics. It covers the transmutation of Al Qaeda from a relatively centralized organization to an increasingly franchised network and the eventual eclipse of its brand by one of its offshoots, the Islamic State. The chapter then looks at the lifecycle of Al Qaeda as a corporate entity from those foundational years up to its transmutation following the Western reactions to the apoapsis of its operational success, the 2001 attacks on the United States. Whereas prior to 2003 it was possible to point to one relatively unified group, it became increasingly proper to refer to this original core as Al Qaeda al Oum following US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
