A final issue is the impact of Bin Laden's death on the ‘Arab spring’. Contrary to proclamations by the likes of Muammar Gadhafi of Libya and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, al-Qaeda is not the driving force behind uprisings against their (and others’) regimes. Yet, at the same time, it may well profit from the stand-offs. In Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is well-entrenched and has acquired capabilities of global reach, manifesting themselves in the organisation’s involvement in various international terrorist plots over the past few years. In the Maghreb, a protracted civil war in Libya may well give al-Qaeda affiliates there opportunities to establish another base, while fully free and fair elections may eventually result in governments more sympathetic to al-Qaeda’s narrative if not its tactics. Hamas’s mourning of Bin Laden may be an ominous sign in this respect, and clearly one which would pose yet another threat to an anyway fragile Middle East peace process. The, somewhat, pessimistic bottom line is thus: that al-Qaeda as an organisation has grown far beyond the man himself which limits, potentially, the positive impetus that can be gained from his death for the fight against international terrorism.