Dr Alia Brahimi is a research associate at the Changing Character of War programme at Oxford, where she completed the MPhil and DPhil in International Relations. Combining her interests in normative theory and international politics, Alia's research revolves around the moral justifications which have accompanied the resort to political violence in the 'war on terror'. Her forthcoming book, entitled 'Jihad and Just War in the War on Terror', examines the Bush administration and al-Qaeda's arguments for war in the context of the western and Islamic just war traditions.