Publication

This Insight discusses why Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliated group fighting in Syria, renamed itself Jabhat Fateh a-Sham (Front for the Conquest of Syria). The rebranding may or may not be attributable to the internal tensions generated by the group’s dual identity as an Islamic-Syrian resistance organization and a Salafi jihadist enterprise. In any case, the text’s author ultimately concludes that this Salafi-jihadist “leopard” inside Syria and elsewhere has most likely not changed its spots.