Terrorist Decision Making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6233153 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gordon H Mccormick (Naval Postgraduate School, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 473-507 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annual Review of Political Science (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1094-2939 • E-ISSN: 1545-1577 |
| Publisher | Annual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1146/annurev.polisci.6.121901.085601 |
| OpenAlex | W2160561671 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 78 |
| References cited | 109 |
How do terrorists and terrorist groups make decisions? And what influence do terrorist decision-making styles have on the course of a terrorist campaign? Efforts to answer these questions have centered on three sets of theories. In order of generality, these are (a) strategic theories, in which the decision to employ terrorism and related forms of political violence is considered to be an instrumental choice; (b) organizational theories, in which the sources of violence are found in the internal dynamics of the terrorist group itself; and (c) psychological theories, in which the decision to employ terrorism is explained within the framework of individual psychology. Most observers agree that these lines of inquiry are not mutually exclusive, but each offers a distinctive approach to terrorist decision making. This essay examines each of these theoretical approaches in turn. It concludes with a brief discussion of the decision-making constraints that help shape terrorist life cycles
Criminology · Economics · Epistemology · Generality · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · Terrorism · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Radicalization into Violent Extremism I
The individual risk assessment of terrorism
Multi-Modal Networks Reveal Patterns of Operational Similarity of Terrorist Organizations
Dogs and Cats Living Together? Explaining the Crime-Terror Nexus
Underground Violence
The Historical Roots of Political Violence
How to lower the possibility of terrorism development in democratic society
The changing role of handmade explosives for terrorist organizations from tactical to strategic threats with their asymmetric social and psychological capacity
Dessrt
The Unipolar Torment
Penality in the Underground
Terrorists as Monsters
Exploring Terrorist Targeting Preferences
Borderland Battles
Deadly Connections
Challenging the Curious Erasure of Religion from the Study of Religious Terrorism
Clandestine Political Violence
The Big Role of Small Groups A Research Agenda
Passive Sponsors of Terrorism
Terrorism and the Varieties of Civil Liberties
Dilemmas of the terrorist underworld
Cyclicality in non-state violence
When enough is enough
Is a use of force appropriate? Clashing memories of the Budennovsk hostage crisis (1995)
Terrorist learning in context – the case of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Social Science Discourse and the Biopolitics of Terrorism
Nuclear terrorism
Why do ethnopolitical organisations turn to crime
Transplantation theory in terrorism
Government protection against terrorism and crime
The Empirical Study of Terrorism
Understanding (non)involvement in terrorist violence
Burnings, Beatings, and Bombings
Pushing the Limits of Military Coercion Theory
Terrorist Organizations in the News
Choosing to Fight, Choosing to Die
Can drones coerce? The effects of remote aerial coercion in counterterrorism
Failed Negotiations and the Dark Side of Ripeness
Measuring the success of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
État des savoirs et pistes de recherche sur la violence politique
Political Socialization and Terrorist Radicalization Among Individuals Who Joined al-Shabaab in Kenya
A Crime Script Analysis of Violent and Nonviolent Extremists
Unpacking the Social Origins of Terrorism
Connections Can Be Toxic
Know Your Enemy
A Preliminary Typology Mapping Pathways of Learning and Innovation by Modern Jihadist Groups
Peace and Conflict Review
The Spaces and Faces of Critical Terrorism Studies
Evaluating militant decision-making with information science
The Internationalization of Terrorist Campaigns
Selling to Both Sides
Too central to fail? Terror networks and leadership decapitation
Assessing the Dangers of Illicit Networks
What Makes Terrorists Tick
Targeting Top Terrorists
What Terrorists Really Want
Denying to win
The political economy of freedom, democracy and transnational terrorism
Deadly Connections
Risk assessment and the prevention of radicalization from nonviolence into terrorism
Dying to bankrupt
Governance of Terror
Kill Them All—Old and Young, Girls and Women and Little Children
Why People Join Terrorist Groups in Kuwait
Solving the Problem of Unattributed Political Violence
Is Terrorism Really a Weapon of the Weak? Debunking the Conventional Wisdom
Killing Range
Weapon of the Strong? Government Support for Religion and Majoritarian Terrorism
Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds
Fighting for Local Control
Do Terrorists Win? Rebels' Use of Terrorism and Civil War Outcomes
The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited
Domestic Terrorism
Green houses for terrorism
Bringing the war home
Terrorismo e política internacional
Terrorismos
The quantity and quality of terrorism
Political organizations
Decision making
Social conflict and social movements.
Human problem solving
Micromotives and macrobehavior
Behavioral Theory of the Firm
Frustration and aggression.
Experiences in Groups
Models of Bounded Rationality
From substantive to procedural rationality
People Power Change
The culture of narcissism
Group dynamics
A Social Psychology of Protest
Terrorism and the Media
Accomplice or Witness? The Media's Role in Terrorism
Inside Terrorist Organizations
The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism
The Haymarket Tragedy
A Political Organization Approach to Transnational Terrorism
The Subculture of Violence
Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State
Power in Numbers
Risk and Culture
A model of the psychological causes of oppositional political terrorism
Understanding the next act
The terrorists' dilemmas
The psychodynamics of terrorism
Rewarding Fire with Fire
Internal organizational problems and the sources of tensions of terrorist movements as catalysts of violence∗
Notes on a psychodynamic theory of terrorist behavior
Patterns in the lives of ETA members
Terrorist and victim
Profile of a terrorist
Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism
Theories of terrorism
When terrorists do the talking
Modern Revolutions, An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon
The calculus of dissent
Aggression
Land and Freedom
American Assassins
Individual Terror
Experiences in Groups
Origins of Terrorism
Sources of Rebellion in Western Societies
Group identification under conditions of external danger
The roles of information, discussion, and consensus in group risk taking
A Causal Model of Civil Strife
Notes on the Concept of Commitment
Social movements
Social Theory and Social Structure
Reasons and Reason
The Psychology of Terrorism
The Lawyer Terrorist and His Comrades
Aggressive behaviors within polities, 1948-1962
Terrorism as a Desperate Game
The Scale of Terrorist Attacks as a Signal of Resources
Dynamics of Terrorism
"Observations on "Why Violence Spreads
Why Violence Spreads
The Causes of Terrorism
Why Terrorism Subsides
Toward a Theory of Revolution
Small Groups and Political Behavior
Mobilization and Participation
Islamist organizations on the Internet
Fanaticism
Social Networks and Social Movements
Diffusion of responsibility and level of risk taking in groups
On the Etiology of Internal Wars
Anarchism and Anti-Intellectualism in Russia
Right-wing terrorism in a comparative perspective
The process of delegitimation
Terrorist targeting
Political parties and the formation of terrorist groups
The media and terrorism
The Legacy of Bakunin
Group influence on individual risk taking
Structural Causes of Oppositional Political Terrorism
A Theoretical Analysis of Transnational Terrorism
Hijackers, Bombers, and Bank Robbers
Rational Choice and Rebellious Collective Action
Identités collectives et changement social
The Convert as a Social Type
Ideological and Interpersonal Change in the Radical Protest Movement
Relative Deprivation and Social Movements
Recruitment to High-Risk Activism
The Strategy and Tactics of Revolutionary Terrorism
| Unique citing works | 78 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,71 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 74 |