Marking the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the article examines the evolution of the type of terrorism associated with al-Qaeda and the «global jihad» movement. It analyzes the «al-Qaedaization» and «regionalization» approaches to the study of this type of terrorism and argues for the «post-al-Qaeda» approach. It stresses that, despite the primary international focus on al-Qaeda linked terrorism in the past decade, the most widespread type of modern terrorism is still the one that is being employed as a tactics in armed conflicts to advance goals that do not go beyond local/regional context. The article concludes that, regardless of which particular type of terrorism is to dominate international political and media attention in the upcoming decades, the role of terrorism as the most asymmetrical and the most violent form of political communication will only increase in the era of information society.