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The Terrorist's Dilemma : Managing Violent Covert Organizations / Jacob N. Shapiro.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2013Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (352 p.) : 6 line illus. 8 tablesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691157214
  • 9781400848645
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 322.4206 23
LOC classification:
  • HV6431
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. The Terrorist's Dilemma -- Chapter 3. The Insider's View on Terrorist Organizations -- Chapter 4. Organizing Al-Qa'ida in Iraq's Operations and Finances -- Chapter 5. The Tradeoffs -- Chapter 6. Uncertainty and Control in Russia -- Chapter 7. Discrimination and Control in Ireland -- Chapter 8. Preference Divergence and Control in Palestine -- Chapter 9. Conclusion and Recommendations -- Appendix A. Annotated Bibliography of Terrorist Autobiographies -- Appendix B. Methodological Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: How do terrorist groups control their members? Do the tools groups use to monitor their operatives and enforce discipline create security vulnerabilities that governments can exploit? The Terrorist's Dilemma is the first book to systematically examine the great variation in how terrorist groups are structured. Employing a broad range of agency theory, historical case studies, and terrorists' own internal documents, Jacob Shapiro provocatively discusses the core managerial challenges that terrorists face and illustrates how their political goals interact with the operational environment to push them to organize in particular ways. Shapiro provides a historically informed explanation for why some groups have little hierarchy, while others resemble miniature firms, complete with line charts and written disciplinary codes. Looking at groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, he highlights how consistent and widespread the terrorist's dilemma--balancing the desire to maintain control with the need for secrecy--has been since the 1880s. Through an analysis of more than a hundred terrorist autobiographies he shows how prevalent bureaucracy has been, and he utilizes a cache of internal documents from al-Qa'ida in Iraq to outline why this deadly group used so much paperwork to handle its people. Tracing the strategic interaction between terrorist leaders and their operatives, Shapiro closes with a series of comparative case studies, indicating that the differences in how groups in the same conflict approach their dilemmas are consistent with an agency theory perspective. The Terrorist's Dilemma demonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400848645

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. The Terrorist's Dilemma -- Chapter 3. The Insider's View on Terrorist Organizations -- Chapter 4. Organizing Al-Qa'ida in Iraq's Operations and Finances -- Chapter 5. The Tradeoffs -- Chapter 6. Uncertainty and Control in Russia -- Chapter 7. Discrimination and Control in Ireland -- Chapter 8. Preference Divergence and Control in Palestine -- Chapter 9. Conclusion and Recommendations -- Appendix A. Annotated Bibliography of Terrorist Autobiographies -- Appendix B. Methodological Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index

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How do terrorist groups control their members? Do the tools groups use to monitor their operatives and enforce discipline create security vulnerabilities that governments can exploit? The Terrorist's Dilemma is the first book to systematically examine the great variation in how terrorist groups are structured. Employing a broad range of agency theory, historical case studies, and terrorists' own internal documents, Jacob Shapiro provocatively discusses the core managerial challenges that terrorists face and illustrates how their political goals interact with the operational environment to push them to organize in particular ways. Shapiro provides a historically informed explanation for why some groups have little hierarchy, while others resemble miniature firms, complete with line charts and written disciplinary codes. Looking at groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, he highlights how consistent and widespread the terrorist's dilemma--balancing the desire to maintain control with the need for secrecy--has been since the 1880s. Through an analysis of more than a hundred terrorist autobiographies he shows how prevalent bureaucracy has been, and he utilizes a cache of internal documents from al-Qa'ida in Iraq to outline why this deadly group used so much paperwork to handle its people. Tracing the strategic interaction between terrorist leaders and their operatives, Shapiro closes with a series of comparative case studies, indicating that the differences in how groups in the same conflict approach their dilemmas are consistent with an agency theory perspective. The Terrorist's Dilemma demonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)