Azzam built a scholarly, ideological and practical paramilitary infrastructure for the globalization of Islamist movements that had previously focused on separate national, revolutionary and liberation struggles. Azzam's philosophical rationalization of global jihad and practical approach to recruitment and training of Muslim militants from around the world blossomed during the Afghan war against Soviet occupation and proved crucial to the subsequent development of the al-Qaida militant movement. In 1989, after the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, Azzam and his deputy Osama bin Laden decided to keep their movement permanent and founded al-Qaeda.