Nizam, la Tanzim (System, not Organization): Do Organizations Matter in Terrorism Today? A Study of the November 2008 Mumbai Attacks.

MUMBAI (India); INDIA

The decline of the terrorist organization and the phenomenon of 'homegrown' or 'leaderless' jihad have led to the perception that the terrorist threat has moved from commander-cadre organizations to diffused networks or cells and individuals. However, using the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, this article demonstrates that organizations do matter in terrorism. In other words, to produce successful and high impact attacks, terrorists do need some form of organization. Even leaderless jihad is not truly leaderless or devoid of some form of organization as the proponents of this concept claim. Moreover, even as the environmental entropy--reduction in the capacity of the environment to support an organization--has become distinctly pronounced in respect of terrorism, some groups did not have to make the same tradeoff as others due to their favorable position vis-a-vis the state they operate in. Therefore, these groups are capable of producing attacks of high operational sophistication with (a) strong organization and (b) state support to maintain that organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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