IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v58y2014i2p199-225.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Allying to Kill

Author

Listed:
  • Michael C. Horowitz

    (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)

  • Philip B. K. Potter

    (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA)

Abstract

Terrorist organizations do not operate in isolation. Instead, they forge alliances with one another, which generate a tight network of intergroup relationships. We argue that these relationships serve to increase group capacity, manifesting itself in the ability of a group to conduct deadly attacks. However, groups are notably judicious when they forge these cooperative ties, preferring to link to the strongest groups to which they have access. The result of this process of preferential attachment is a core/periphery structure in the broader network of alliances. Moreover, groups with ties to organizations at the core of the broader universe of relationships reap more rewards than those with large numbers of less meaningful alliances. Terrorism research and counterterrorism policy should assess terrorist organizations in the broader context of their interrelationships and depth of alliances rather than in isolation.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael C. Horowitz & Philip B. K. Potter, 2014. "Allying to Kill," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 58(2), pages 199-225, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:199-225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/58/2/199.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aditya Bhan & Tarun Kabiraj, 2020. "Terrorist Inter-Group Cooperation and Terror Activity," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 29(6), pages 1085-1106, December.
    2. Jori Breslawski & Brandon Ives, 2019. "Killing for God? Factional Violence on the Transnational Stage," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(3), pages 617-643, March.
    3. Bhan, Aditya & Kabiraj, Tarun, 2020. "Terrorist Inter-Group Cooperation and Terror Activity," MPRA Paper 98484, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Fuad Aleskerov & Irina Gavrilenkova & Sergey Shvydun & Vyacheslav Yakuba, 2020. "Power Distribution in the Networks of Terrorist Groups: 2001–2018," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 399-424, June.
    5. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Todd Sandler, 2022. "Effects of Defensive and Proactive Measures on Competition Between Terrorist Groups," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(10), pages 1797-1825, November.
    6. Seden Akcinaroglu & Efe Tokdemir, 2018. "To instill fear or love: Terrorist groups and the strategy of building reputation," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(4), pages 355-377, July.
    7. Susan Olzak, 2022. "The Impact of Ideological Ambiguity on Terrorist Organizations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(4-5), pages 836-866, May.
    8. Megan Farrell, 2020. "The logic of transnational outbidding: Pledging allegiance and the escalation of violence," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(3), pages 437-451, May.
    9. Gaibulloev, Khusrav & Hou, Dongfang & Sandler, Todd, 2020. "How do the factors determining terrorist groups’ longevity differ from those affecting their success?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Victor Asal & Aaron M. Hoffman, 2016. "Media effects: Do terrorist organizations launch foreign attacks in response to levels of press freedom or press attention?," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(4), pages 381-399, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:199-225. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.