Leadership Matters: The Effects of Targeted Killings on Militant Group Tactics

Abrahms, Max; Mierau, Jochen O.

doi:10.1080/09546553.2015.1069671

Cited by 35 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, some research looking at the consequences of decapitation reaches different conclusions. For example, Abrahms and Mierau (2017) found that in the immediate aftermath of drone strikes aimed at neutralizing the leadership of terrorist groups, attacks moved from military to civilian targets, effectively increasing their overall lethality. The authors interpret this result as evidence that compared to higher-level group LEADERS, FOLLOWERS AND VIOLENCE IN EXTREMIST GROUPS 8 members, lower-level members of organizations who take over leadership roles after targeted killings are more prone to use violence.…”

Section: Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Who is more violent in extremist groups? A comparison of leaders and followers

Jaśko

LaFree

2019

Aggressive Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Few prior studies have examined the extent to which the behavior and characteristics of political extremists are related to their position within radical groups. In this paper we concentrate on one of the most fundamental distinctions in groups: that between leaders and followers. Our main goal is to investigate the comparative propensity of leaders and followers to engage in political violence. In a sample of individuals who have committed ideologically motivated political crimes in the United States (N = 1,331) we found that even though leaders were more ideologically committed to the group's goals and ideologies, they were at the same time less likely to engage in violent acts. Moreover, we found that leaders in radical criminal organizations shared many characteristics with leaders in noncriminal organizations. Specifically, in comparison to followers, they were more often male, older, and they were more likely to belong to an ethnic majority. We consider implications for future research and policy of the fundamental conclusion that compared to leaders, followers in terrorist organizations are more likely to engage in violent acts.

show abstract

Section: Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Who is more violent in extremist groups? A comparison of leaders and followers

Jaśko

LaFree

2019

Aggressive Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hepworth (2014) finds no evidence of retaliation after the killing of top-tier al Qaeda leaders. Abrahms and Potter (2015) as well as Abrahms and Mierau (2015) find that drone strikes led to a decline in attacks against military targets in the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal regions, but that they also increased indiscriminate targeting. Jenna Jordan (2014) argues that the attacks against al Qaeda are ineffective and likely to be counterproductive.…”

Section: The Effectiveness Of Leadership Decapitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lasting peace or temporary calm? Rebel group decapitation and civil war outcomes

Ryckman

2017

Conflict Management and Peace Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Existing research has found that killing or capturing rebel group leaders can lead to the termination of civil wars. This paper considers the quality of those terminations, examining how wars end and whether this produces a lasting peace or only a temporary reprieve from violence. Decapitation is expected to weaken rebel groups, shifting the balance of power to the government; however, results suggest that killing or capturing a rebel group leader tends to produce termination through inactivity rather than outright government victories. Decapitation is also found to have no effect on the chances of civil war recurrence. This suggests that the removal of rebel group leaders is effective primarily as a short-term strategy that does not tend to generate a lasting peace.

show abstract

“…Still, researchers need to investigate not just whether leadership decapitation "works", but how this counterterrorism strategy and others may actually exacerbate the terrorism threat. In recent work, I have tried to shed light in this area by demonstrating how killing the leaders of militant groups tends to make them more tactically extreme (Abrahms and Mierau, 2017;Abrahms, 2018). Now that academics have a firmer understanding of our terrorist enemies, we need to redouble efforts to understand how to combat them or at least not to contribute to the problem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrorism: Its Past, Present & Future Study - A Special Issue to Commemorate CSTPV at 25

Brunton

Wilson

2020

CVIR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Contemporary Voices, Handa CSTPV 25 th Anniversary Special Issue 3 Discussion 1-Revisiting the wicked problem of defining terrorism by Alex P. Schmid Contemporary Voices, Handa CSTPV 25 th Anniversary Special Issue 6 5. Terrorism is an act of political violence which means that in the end it is intended to force senior decision makers to change their policy radically…; 6. The violence of terrorism is primarily directed at civilians; 7. The direct victims of terrorism are selected at random from a general target group; 8. The actual victims of terrorism, its direct targets, are not identical to its target group, which is the indirect but principal objective of the violence; 9. Between the violence of terrorism and its political consequences, or, between the direct victims of terrorism and its target group, there is an intermediate variable: fear; 10. The scene of terrorism is a monumental drama that arouses primordial, primitive instincts; 11. Behind the active aspect of terrorism there is an underground group that is either more or less autonomous or a secretive executive arm of a large and well-known organisation; 12. The terrorist group is a non-state organ or, at most, only partially associated with an established governmental institution and under its control (Aran, 2019. For an alternative list of twelve elements defining terrorism, see: Schmid, 2011, pp. 86-7). While this is a very useful list, there is one crucial element missing. Propaganda by the deed The crucial element that has stayed central with the tactic of terrorism is the role of witnesses and the media. While in the late eighteenth century serial public executions of 'enemies of the revolution' by the guillotine were used to create and spread terror, in the nineteenth century a sensationalist rotary press amplified the impact of terrorist bombings. Anarchist and social-revolutionary theorists and practitioners discovered that one could use demonstrative acts of public violence as a way to enter the news system. They called it 'propaganda by the deed'. To quote one of them, the German-American Johannes Most (1885): 'Everyone knows […] that the more highly placed the one shot or blown up, and the more perfectly executed the attempt, the greater the propagandistic effect. […] What is important is not solely these actions themselves but also the propagandistic effect that they are able to achieve. Hence, we preach not only action in and for itself, but also action as propaganda' (quoted in Laqueur, 1978, pp. 100, 105). By killing heads of state and government, ranging from the Russian Czar Alexander II (1881) to the Italian King Umberto (1900), terrorists made headlines without paying a penny in advertising costs. The principle of accessing the world's news system by deliberately creating bad news has remained the same. As one German terrorist explained in 1970: 'We give the media what they need: newsworthy events. They cover us, explain our causes and this, unwittingly, legitim...

show abstract

Leadership Matters: The Effects of Targeted Killings on Militant Group Tactics

Cited by 35 publications

References 12 publications

Who is more violent in extremist groups? A comparison of leaders and followers

Who is more violent in extremist groups? A comparison of leaders and followers

Lasting peace or temporary calm? Rebel group decapitation and civil war outcomes

Terrorism: Its Past, Present & Future Study - A Special Issue to Commemorate CSTPV at 25

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About