D. A. NECHITAILO Candidate of Political Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: Al-Qaeda, Arab spring, insurgency Rapid changes in the states of the Arab world, and especially in North Africa, led to the fall of the regimes of A. Ben Ali (Tunisia), M. Gaddafi (Libya), H. Mubarak (Egypt), A. Saleh (Yemen) that had existed here for decades. The new conditions allowed moderate Islamists to achieve significant success in the political arena of this region. At the same time, radical Islamist groups were completely unprepared for the "Arab Spring". The demands of the "street" were primarily democratic in nature and were far from the Salafists ' attitudes towards the creation of a universal caliphate. In particular, the leaders of al-Qaeda did not make any statements about the events until the end of March 2011 and were slow to respond to the protests and political changes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Thus, Ayman al-Zawahiri in his address only warned Egyptians against adopting secular forms of government, which, according to him, are completely alien to the Muslim world. The ideologues of Al-Qaeda have developed a strategy of action in various regions of the world. In those countries where it is difficult for Islamic radicals to strengthen their positions as a result of harsh measures taken by the authorities, they seek to implement their ideological line through local groups. Thus, focusing on the fight against the United States, Salafists are increasing their influence in the states allied to Washington, creating cells in them. During Osama bin Laden's leadership of al-Qaeda, the organization's strategic focus was on global jihad. At the same time, after Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, took over the head of the main structure, it became clear that he always harbored the idea of resuming the struggle for the overthrow of the ruling regime in Egypt. EGYPT-THE PULSE OF THE ARAB WORLD In general, according to the new leader of Al- ... Читать далее