This dissertation explores the composition, construction and framing of Al-Qa'ida leadership communiqués – understood as the statements, messages, interviews, written work and other output from the movement's predominant leaders: Usama bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The thesis argues existing research into this corpus is insufficiently rigorous, systematic and comprehensive in scope, thus failing to elucidate nuances and dynamics in the narrative of the Al-Qa'ida leadership since the movement's inception. The current study presents results from the coding of 240 communiqués produced by the two leaders from 1991 to August 2011. The analysis was informed by the literature on Collective Action Frames, which understands this material as the communicative effort of movement leaders towards identified audiences and constituents. This approach divides each message according to diagnostic, prognostic and motivational appeals contained within the narrative and assesses the impact of this collective according to its narrative fidelity (as regards the wider socio-cultural milieu), empirical credibility (in terms of consistency and continuity) and experiential commensurability (in light of experiences and realities of designated constituents). The dissemination of communiqués highlighting the values, aspirations, frustrations and grievances of Al-Qa'ida is a central objective of its leadership. This material provides the metrics to understand the way in which the movement has evolved since its formation. The leaders themselves recognise the importance of communicating with diverse audiences in this way. The longitudinal analysis of the leadership communiqués, however, found that bin Ladin and Zawahiri failed to present coherent justifications for the solutions presented or how they should be focused. Moreover, it found that the leadership failed to reflect the interests of the vast majority of Muslims, particularly in the West, and gradually denounced those it claims to represent – the Muslim ummah. This dissertation thus illustrates how Al-Qa'ida has failed as a revolutionary vanguard based on evidence garnered from a systematic and long-term analysis of the leadership's communiqués.

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka på vilket sätt attacker utförda av al-Qaida kanhänföras till begreppet asymmetri och på vilket sätt man kan tolka den amerikanska administrationensrespons på dessa som uttryck för ett linjärt tänkande. Vidare vill jag undersöka vilka svårigheter somkan uppstå i relationen mellan en linjär omvärldsuppfattning och asymmetriska metoder. För attuppfylla syftet med uppsatsen kommer tre av al-Qaidas attacker att studeras. Dessa är: attacken mot deamerikanska ambassaderna i Afrika, 1998, attacken mot USS Cole, 2000 och attacken 11 september,2001. Rapporterna från den amerikanska administrationen efter respektive attack kommer att utgöragrunden i mitt empiriska material. Teorianknytningen grundar sig i Linda Beckermans teori om thenon-linear dynamics of war samt Steven Metz och Douglas Johnsons definitioner på asymmetri. En avuppsatsens slutsatser avseende USA och dess krig mot al-Qaida är att USA bör utveckla sinanpassningsförmåga, och för att göra detta måste deras omvärldsuppfattning och förståelsehorisontvidgas. Detta skulle sammantaget medföra en större beredskap för oväntade händelseutvecklingar samtmedföra en ökad möjlighet att ta rätta beslut, både på lång och kort sikt. / The aim of this essay has been to investigate in what way attacks made by alqaidaare assignable to what is called asymmetric warfare, and in what way youcan interpret the American administration´s response and actions to thoseattacks as a result of linear thinking. Furthermore I want to analyse whatdifficulties that may appear in the relationship between linear thinking andasymmetric methods. To support and fulfil this aim I shall investigate threeattacks committed by al-Qaida, these are: the bombing of the Americanembassies in Africa in 1998, the attack on USS Cole in 2000 and the attacks on11 September 2001, and the subsequent reports made from institutions in theAmerican administration. To interpret and fulfil the purpose of the essay I useLinda Beckerman´s theory about the non linear dynamics of war, and StevenMetz´s and Douglas Johnson´s definition and theory of asymmetric forms anddimensions. One conclusion is that the United States must improve their abilityto identify the world around them and consequently improve their adaptability.In order to do this they have to broaden their horizon of comprehension andthus be better prepared for unexpected developments of events which wouldimprove the possibility of taking the right action in both short and long termperspectives. / Avdelning: ALB - Slutet Mag 3 C-upps.Hylla: Upps. ChP 00-02

"In the eye of the beholder- A didactic study of Swedish teachers and textbooks in history’s reasoning about nine eleven and its aftermath" by Emmy Johansson and Emma Svanström aims to show which picture both teachers and textbooks on elementary school and upper secondary school want to mediate on the subject. The study also strives to compare the teachers view with the textbooks. To achieve these goals the study uses materials from eight interviews and fifteen textbooks. The methods are a combination of interviews and textual analysis inspired by the scientist Elizabeth D. Herman. Comparison was also included in order to be able to compare teachers and textbooks. Content analysis and sentence centralization was used in order to analyze the materials. Finally the study used a combination of theoretical concepts which included history didactics, historically consciousness and facts about the production of textbooks. The results show that although there is a great variation in how teachers as well as textbooks reason about the subject there are also many similar thoughts and presentations. This is the case for as well teachers as textbooks and the comparison between them. The study also reveal that although teachers are skeptical about the textbooks they are both needed to form a good education. But such a combination would still leave some effects unmentioned to the students.