1 ISSN 2334-3745 June 2019 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 13, Issue 3 Global Jihadism after the Syria War by Tore Refslund Hamming Abstract Te period 2012-2018 is turning out to be an important transformative period for the global Jihadi movement, most importantly because of events in Syria but also resulting from Jihadists’ ability to expand and take advantage of benefcial opportunity structures in other war theatres. Te article identifes the most important trends of this period for the future evolution of Jihadism, namely the ideological evolution, Jihadism as a tangible political project, internal confict, networks and training, the coming of a new generation of ideologues and technical evolution. Similar to previous transformative periods in Afghanistan and Iraq, the argument made here is that these six trends will have a long-lasting impact on the Jihadi movement and guide the behaviour of groups and individuals for years to come. Keywords: Jihadism, Syria, Global Jihad, Fratricide, Ideology In 2013, Danish researcher Ann-Sophie Hemmingsen posed the question of whether Syria would become a school for terrorists.[1] Now, six years later, the answer appears to be a resounding confrmation. Te war in Syria will go on record as one of those key periods that transformed the state of Jihadism, similar to previous experiences of Jihadi melting pots like Afghanistan in the 1980s-90s and Iraq in the 2000s. In 2006, Tomas Hegghammer published the article “Global Jihadism afer the Iraq War” examining how the war in Iraq impacted the Jihadi movement and its engagement in other battlefelds.[2] Tis article builds on Hegghammer’s piece in that it identifes how the Syrian war—and more generally the period 2012-2018—has had an impact on developments and trends within Jihadism. Looking at past transformative periods, like the experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, helps to understand how current events may change the future. Hence, our knowledge of how these past experiences infuenced the ensuing evolution of the Jihadi movement ofers further insights into how current trends afliated with the Jihadi school of Syria will infuence the future development and confguration of the Jihadi movement. Te article does not only deal with the Syrian war, but more generally, its evolutions within Jihadism during the period (2012-2018) of the Syrian war as Jihadists have been active on several battlefelds, but with Syria being the most dominating, not least because of the success of the Islamic State and Syria being the centre of its caliphate. Moreover, it identifes the most important trends of this period and discusses how they may infuence the future. Tese trends are: ideological evolution, Jihadism as a tangible political project, internal confict, networks and training, a new generation of ideologues, and technical evolution. Each of these aspects has been characteristic of the ongoing Jihad in Syria and other battlefelds since 2013 and will likely have an impact on the future development of Jihadism locally, regionally, and globally. Tis article is founded on several years of close observation of the Jihadi movement as part of a larger research project on the internal dynamics within Jihadism. Tis process has involved reading thousands of Jihadists’ own written products, following their online behaviour on Twitter and later Telegram, and interviewing senior ideological fgures. Based on this research, the article frst describes each of six identifed trends before concluding with a discussion of how these trends will have an impact on the future evolution of the Jihadi movement. Ideological Evolution Te emergence of modern Jihadism is usually dated to 1960s Egypt although it can be traced back to the 19 th century and the military struggles of Abd al-Kader and Omar Mukhtar against Western imperialism. Abu Musab al-Suri, one of the most prominent contemporary Jihadi strategists and thinkers, sets the start of the