Al-Qaeda's management philosophy has been described as "centralization of decision and decentralization of execution."[SUP]
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It is thought that al-Qaeda's leadership, following the
War on Terror, has "become geographically isolated", leading to the "emergence of decentralized leadership" of regional groups using the al-Qaeda "brand".[SUP]
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Many terrorism experts do not believe that the global jihadist movement is driven at every level by al-Qaeda's leadership.
Although bin Laden still held considerable ideological sway over some Muslim extremists before his death, experts argue that al-Qaeda has fragmented over the years into a variety of regional movements that have little connection with one another.
Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, said that
al-Qaeda is now just a "loose label for a movement that seems to target the West". "There is no umbrella organisation. We like to create a mythical entity called [al-Qaeda] in our minds, but that is not the reality we are dealing with."[SUP]
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