How Terrorists Learn: Political Violence

Carolin Görzig is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
Michael Fuerstenberg is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
Florian Köhler is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
Imad Alsoos is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.

'This volume offers an exceptional collection of well-written and important studies on how terrorist networks acquire and interpret information, store and share knowledge, and actively seek new ways to adapt and innovate. These learning attributes distinguish the relatively few effective terrorists from the many who fail.'

-- James J.F. Forest, UMass Lowell and Editor-in-Chief, Perspectives on Terrorism


'This book makes an important contribution to the steadily growing literature on terrorism learning. The authors build a comprehensive model that explains how violent non-state actors learn, which they apply to a range of terrorist and insurgent case studies. Not content to limit themselves to explaining how terrorists improve their violent repertoires, the authors explore how some groups learn to question—and change—their goals and strategies, including moving away from political violence. How Terrorists Learn will appeal to anyone interested in terrorism studies and homeland security, insurgency and counterinsurgency, organizational adaptation and learning, and security studies.'
-- Michael Kenney, University of Pittsburgh, USA


 

1. Introduction: Tackling the Complexity of Terrorist Learning  Part I: Learning of Organizations  2. Double-loop Learning in Terrorist Organizations: Facilitators and Impediments  3. Downgrading or Upsizing Strategies: How Rebels Learn about the Right Repertoire of Violence  4. Social-Media Jihad as a Learned Strategy: How Daesh Learned but Failed to Exploit Western Vulnerabilities  5. Learning Patterns and Failures: An Analysis of ISIS Operations between 2013 and 2019  Part II: Learning beyond Organizations  6. Adaptation of Propaganda and Communication: The Online Magazines of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State Compared  7. Terrorist Tactical Diffusion Among Lone Actors: Explaining the Spread of Vehicle Ramming Attacks  8. Learning through the Migration of Knowledge: Exploring the Transition of Operatives between Violence Organisations  9. Decentralized Collective Learning: Militant Accelerationism as a Community of Practice  10. Conclusion: What Have We Learned about Terrorist Learning?