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The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria’s ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. Ranging across the battlefields and international borders have been dozens of jihadi Islamist fighting groups, some of which coalesced into significant factions such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

This book, by one of the world’s foremost Syria analysts, assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organizations in Syria’s fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. Lister is careful to situate Syria’s insurgency in the context of external factors, amongst them the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the jihadist sphere in Syria.

This most comprehensive volume to date on the Syria question, drawing heavily on first-hand testimony, will be required reading for all those hoping to make sense of the conflict.