Through informative profiles of armed groups of the greater Middle East and African Sahel from the 1960s to 2022, this book highlights a burgeoning network of violent organizations and evolving trends for future analysis.

This book offers an overview of major themes driving the proliferation of armed nonstate actor groups operating throughout the greater Middle East, discussing such conceptual issues as irregular warfare, separatist rebellions, proxy forces, insurgency, terrorism, and private military contractors. Rather than categorizing armed groups according to changing or contentious labels, the chronological organization follows the date of founding, with information on motivations or aims, strategies, organizational structure, safe havens or areas of operation, networks of political and financial support, and challenges to group capacity.

While many studies provide in-depth analysis of a single group or a particular strategy or motivation, this work profiles dozens of groups with various aims over time to assess patterns of continuity and change. As armed groups learn from one another and adapt to evolving conditions, surveying numerous groups from the Cold War era of competition through the present offers insights for emerging trends and potential trajectories of armed groups.