A Social Movement Theory Typology of Militant Organisations: Contextualising Terrorism

Abstract

Typologies are ubiquitous in terrorism studies, illustrating their continued appeal as a tool to further our understanding of this form of political violence. Despite this, to date, the promise of an empirically derived typology has largely been neglected. In addressing this gap, this paper sets out a typology developed from Social Movement Theory. Using a novel statistical technique to derive a three-dimensional framework for categorising militant groups, the typology incorporates both organisational characteristics and the wider political context. The result is a typology defined by three conceptual constructs: political capacity, war-making capacity and network capacity. Alongside these organisational features, imposing measures of the wider political opportunity structure reveals eight types of militant organisation. To explore the utility of the framework, a preliminary analysis interprets the typology in light of the presence of wider conflict. That a robust relationship is found between the various types and whether groups were operating in peacetime, civil war, or low-intensity conflict, goes some way to demonstrating its utility as an analytical tool. Conclusions draw attention to the importance of contextualising militant groups in their sociopolitical setting, and the benefits of combining theory alongside empirical analysis to develop robust characterisations of violent organisations.

Influences and vulnerabilities in radicalised lone-actor terrorists

“…The theory provides insight into the processes underpinning social movements, where movement refers to cooperating individuals who act collectively to effect social change such that cultural or political environments may be transformed (Bayat, 2005). It is predicated on the ideas of political opportunity to engage with or oppose elites and mobilise resources to attain specifically framed goals (Marsden, 2014). Fuist (2013) argued that culture was an important influence on social movement.…”

“…Social movements are acknowledged as dynamic and complex entities (Bayat, 2005), and social movement theory seeks to explain the processes entailed in social mobilisation (Marsden, 2014). The theory provides insight into the processes underpinning social movements, where movement refers to cooperating individuals who act collectively to effect social change such that cultural or political environments may be transformed (Bayat, 2005).…”

Building “Terrorism Studies” as an Interdisciplinary Space: Addressing Recurring Issues in the Study of Terrorism

“…34 Scholars like Marsden and Holbrook not only demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the relevant social movement literature, but they use them to not only expand our understandings of political violence, but to develop and expand social movement theory. 35 Where we are unable to make a contribution to the literatures that we borrow from, it may be that our conclusions are not quite as original as we would like to think.…”

How rebel groups form in genocide: The Warsaw Ghetto fighters

“…They claimed that deportations were simply for resettlement (Rosenberg, 1996). Warnings were given at underground meetings (Heilman, 1996) and in the underground press, that the deportation trains disembarked at extermination camps, but evidence of extermination camps did not spread much beyond the political underground (Zuckerman, 1993: 116–117). This evidence of extermination camps—and the Judenrat’s failure to warn Jews—led some youth leaders to advocate for armed resistance.…”

“…This focus on organizational structure is grounded in the political science literature on rebel organizations, which has flourished in the last decade (Parkinson and Zaks, 2018). Scholars of rebel organizations have identified how state strength (Buterbaugh et al, 2017) and the manner of state repression (Lindemann and Wimmer, 2018) influence not only the occurrence of armed resistance, but the structures of rebel organizations (Buesa and Baumert, 2018;Ghatak, 2018;Marsden, 2016).…”