Includes bibliographical references and index.

Yossef Bodansky, one of the most respected--and best-informed--experts on radical Islamism in the world today, returns to alert readers to the future course of the struggle between Islamist extremism and the West, by turning the spotlight on the troubled region of Chechnya, which Bodansky pinpoints as the new crucible of terror. Bodansky draws on previously unseen intelligence from his insider sources to offer a portrait of the Chechenization phenomenon and what it means for the United States and the greater war on terror. As he reveals, the final years of US-Soviet relations left Chechnya as a fertile breeding ground for the mujahadin, and in the past decade a combination of militant native Chechen anti-American, anti-Russian agitators and Middle Eastern jihadis have joined forces to help al-Qaeda and the greater Islamist movement pursue its war against the West.--From publisher description.