Global Jihad and Movements of Rage This paper makes two original arguments. First, I argue that global jihad is best understood as four distinct iterations, or ‘waves,’ since the 1980s, each with its own distinct causes and ideological formulations. The first wave of global jihad began in the 1980s and focused on the liberation of Muslim Lands through a Jihadi International; the second, on the expulsion of an American ‘far enemy’ from the Middle East; the third on the eradication of apostasy through state-building; and the fourth on networked and stochastic violence through individual ‘personal jihad.’ Second, I situate the phenomenon of global jihad in the universe of violent social movements, arguing that it is best understood as a variant form of a movement of rage. Movements of rage employ nihilistic violence and millenarian, anti-Enlightenment ideologies in pursuit of political goals, which include the eradication of cultural contamination. In order to argue for the explanatory power of a movement of rage approach, I compare global jihad to various other forms of violent social movements, including fascism, Leninism, national liberation, ‘cosmic war,’ and ‘new terrorism.’ The paper is based on original Arabic documents and other sources generated during five months of fieldwork abroad in 2019. It is part of a book project to be published by Stanford University Press in September 2020.