The life cycle of terrorist organisations

Article

Phillips, Peter J.. 2011. "The life cycle of terrorist organisations." International Advances in Economic Research. 17 (4), pp. 369-385. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-011-9314-3
Article Title

The life cycle of terrorist organisations

ERA Journal ID18215
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorPhillips, Peter J.
EditorsVirgo, John
Journal TitleInternational Advances in Economic Research
Journal Citation17 (4), pp. 369-385
Number of Pages17
Year2011
Place of PublicationNew York, USA
ISSN1083-0898
1573-966X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-011-9314-3
Web Address (URL)http://www.springerlink.com/content/g64712l07k673x20/fulltext.pdf
Abstract

That terrorist organisations come and go is a fact. This empirical fact tends to draw attention to the demise of the terrorist organisation and distracts from the dynamics of the terrorist organisation's life cycle. In this respect, the extant literature suffers from a serious weakness that is symptomatic of the absence from the literature of a rigorous theoretical explanation for the life cycle of terrorist organisations. This paper aims to address this by developing a theoretical explanation for the life cycle of terrorist organisations that is centred on competition for grassroots or popular support between the terrorist organisation and the government. The decline and demise of a particular terrorist organisation is not certain ex ante and a terrorist organisation may be expected to be most dangerous, not in its death throes, but during its early years as it competes with the government for grassroots support. These appear to be different conclusions to those that characterise some parts of the literature on this subject. The theoretical explanation developed herein also predicts a cyclical oscillation of conflict.

Keywordsterrorist organisation; life cycle; grassroots support; conflict; demise; cyclical; defence
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020520104. Industrial and organisational psychology (incl. human factors)
350799. Strategy, management and organisational behaviour not elsewhere classified
380304. Microeconomic theory
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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Accounting, Economics and Finance
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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