Research of al-Qa'ida has Never been Easier. Cover Image

Výzkum al-Káidy nikdy nebyl snazší.
Research of al-Qa'ida has Never been Easier.

An Overview of the Sources of Primary Data

Author(s): Petr Zelinka
Subject(s): Security and defense, Politics and religion, Politics and society
Published by: Univerzita obrany - Centrum bezpečnostních a vojenskostrategických studií
Keywords: Al-Qa’ida; Research; Primary Data

Summary/Abstract: There has never been so much primary data on al-Qa'ida publicly available. Nevertheless primary data are still not used enough, despite the fact that their omission had a clearly detrimental effect on the quality of research on al-Qa'ida. The article's goal is twofold: to lay out an overview of the publicly available sources of primary data on al-Qa'ida and by highlighting interesting aspects of their content to demonstrate their usefulness for the research in general. The article deals particularly with outputs of public institutions, al-Qa'ida's members' publications, al-Qa'ida's members' communication that has been made public and leaked classified information. The topic how to use the sources of primary data will be discussed briefly. The article aims at encouraging the academic and expert community to use primary data more broadly when researching al-Qa'ida.

  • Issue Year: 24/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 46-60
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Czech
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