NCJ Number
178798
Journal
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Volume: 22 Issue: 3 Dated: July-September 1999 Pages: 247-256
Date Published
September 1999
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hamas, Bin Laden, and Egypt's Islamic Group differ markedly from classical terrorist groups formed in the 1960's, not only in their ideology but also in their organizational structures.
Abstract
The newer groups tend to be structured in more decentralized organizational designs, often resembling loose networks. Networked structures are made feasible and effective by the information revolution, and these structures have important implications for predicting and countering terrorist acts. The authors contends terrorist groups will engage in information age conflict or netwar using information technology as an enabling factor. She notes that a positive correlation is emerging between the degree of activity of a terrorist group and the extent to which it has adopted a networked structure and that the likelihood young recruits will be familiar with information technology implies terrorist groups will be increasingly networked. 47 notes