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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 Dilemmais 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 Dilemmademonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity.

Explores the factors behind outbreak waves of Palestinian suicide bombing attacks, challenging Mia Bloom's (2004) outbidding thesis. Her theorizing is outlined, deriving four hypotheses centered on increasing or decreasing popularity of organizations, ie, Fatah & Hamas, that engaged in suicide attacks. These hypotheses are considered & found wanting. Three principles of group conflict are identified, & three additional hypotheses, based on violence, cooperation, & social solidarity, respectively, are generated. It is concluded that the explanatory power of the outbidding thesis is weaker than Bloom indicates. An alternative explanation is offered, suggesting that theorizing ought to shift away from monocausal explanations toward multivariate models that account for variation in time & place in the frequency of suicide attacks & support for them. Tables, Figures. D. Edelman

  \"These groups are always worried about infiltration,\" [Mia Bloom] said. \"When a family member tried to join, it's a great vetting mechanism. Then they know they can trust them.\" \"The reason for this is the fear that if the siblings are sent to the same location, one might convince the other to defect, because of the love of their sibling,\" said Bloom. Bloom warned that extremists were trying to recruit entire families in Europe: \"The trend we are anticipating is parent and child.\" - ( New York Times )

Although the Islamic State has eclipsed al-Qaeda on the battlefield and on the Internet, that doesn't necessarily mean it's better at promoting terrorism long-distance, says Michael O'Hanlon, a Brookings Institute foreign policy and security analyst: \"It doesn't mean they're better bombmakers than al-Qaeda.\" Gen. John Allen, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, calls the group an \"abomination\" and \"a clear and present danger to the U.S.\" John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, argues that its rivalry with al-Qaeda makes a strike at the U.S. homeland more likely, because \"success would contrast sharply with al-Qaeda's inability to pull off another major attack here after 9/11.\" \"They are evil. They are barbarians,\" he said at one session. \"If they're not conducting mass executions, they're burying people alive.\" You can't negotiate with them, he said.

House impeachment managers wrapped up their case against Trumpand Trump's defense team begins their arguments the next day againstconviction. U.S. reports 475,000 plus deaths and over 27 millioninfections, but vaccinations are ramping up after slow rollout withsome states easing COVID restrictions. The variant first discovered inthe U.K. has already made to more than half of the countries in Europeand there is concern that current lockdown measures are not enough tokeep the virus under control. Denmark is soon to become the firstnation to rollout immunity passports for foreign travel but criticsare warning about potential discrimination and data privacy issues.Alexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this monthsparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face chargesof slandering a war veteran in a separate case. Alexey Navalny back incourt in defamation case; Myanmar Coup: Protestors march for seventhstraight day; Protests grow as military arrests more civilianofficials; US imposes sanctions on Burmese military leaders; Hong Kongcelebrates scaled down Lunar New Year; Impeachment manager asksSenators to convict Trump: \"If we let it go unanswered, who's to sayit won't happen again?\" GUESTS: Denver Riggleman, Mia Bloom, Ravina Kullar

\"Growing up, I was always very much fighting for the underdog,\" she says. \"I'm the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The Holocaust loomed large. I don't see how any group that has been persecuted can turn around and persecute any other group.\" \"When there's intentional violence against the other side's civilians, it's never justified,\" [Mia Bloom] says. \"But you can understand some of the structural mechanisms that lead people to behave as they do.\" \"It actually doesn't work,\" says Bloom, who's now preparing a third book, a study of rape and war. \"At the end of the day, violence will only beget more violence.\"

\"Brothers would likely be exposed to similar radical messages, and they might well debate and brainstorm together about them,\" said Audrey Kurth Cronin, an author and scholar at George Mason University. \"And if you can rely on a family member in your plotting, it's probably less likely that they'll go to the police. It's a question of security and trust.\" \"Violent extremism spreads through social contact, and for most people, siblings are a big and important part of their social environment,\" said J.M. Berger, a terrorism analyst and co-author of \"ISIS: The State of Terror.\" \"You may feel you can talk to a sibling about matters you can't discuss with others.\" Prosecutors in Belgium announced on Wednesday that they had found a suicide note, or will, that one of the brothers, [Ibrahim], had left on his computer, saying he was in a \"bad situation\" and risked arrest, after the authorities caught Salah Abdeslam on Friday. Ariel Merari, an Israeli scholar thought to have interviewed more terrorists than anyone, has described this sensation of urgency a \"10 minutes to midnight feeling\" -- in other words: time to act.

UMass Lowell professor and CTSS Director John Horgan, with his colleague Professor Scott Flower from the University of Melbourne, Australia, were selected to receive a $1.13 million Minerva grant for their project \"Understanding American Muslim Converts in the Contexts of Security and Society.\" UMass Lowell Professor Mia Bloom's project mapping the pathways of children's mobilization into terrorism was selected to receive a $941,169 Minerva grant. The project, \"Preventing the Next Generation,\" will examine how and why children are increasingly involved in terrorist operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Somalia. \"We've noticed an increasing trend of terrorist organizations using children,\" Bloom said. \"This research is intended to identify precisely how children get involved and how to interrupt and stop the process. The research will contrast children in terrorist groups with child soldiers and children in gangs to better understand how they are alike and how they differ.\"

UMass Lowell professor and CTSS director John Horgan, with his colleague Professor Scott Flower from the University of Melbourne, Australia, were selected to receive a $1.13 million Minerva grant for their project \"Understanding American Muslim Converts in the Contexts of Security and Society.\" UMass Lowell Professor Mia Bloom's project mapping the pathways of children's mobilization into terrorism was selected to receive a $941,169 Minerva grant. The project, \"Preventing the Next Generation,\" will examine how and why children are increasingly involved in terrorist operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Somalia. \"We've noticed an increasing trend of terrorist organizations using children,\" Bloom said. \"This research is intended to identify precisely how children get involved and how to interrupt and stop the process. The research will contrast children in terrorist groups with child soldiers and children in gangs to better understand how they are alike and how they differ.\"

I'm joined by our special guests tonight. Hamid Slimi is an imam and founder of the global campaign Muslim Messengers for Peace. He was appointed by the court to counsel three of the young accused after the Toronto 18 terror plot of 2006. Alia Hogben is the executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and initiated the Common Ground project, a campaign designed to bring together youth of different faiths and cultures. And Mia Bloom is a Canadian professor now teaching in the U.S. and a leading expert on women and terrorism. She briefed the White House on that very subject at the anti-terror summit in Washington two weeks ago. Hamid and *, I'll come to you in just a moment, but I want to bring in Mia, with your experience in Canada and the United States. The numbers are extremely rough. We hear about 130 Canadians now volunteering overseas for ISIS and al-Qaeda. Almost the same number in the United States, even though they have ten times our population. Rough estimates. But what do you think it is? What is it about Canada that makes our numbers so high? I think there are a number of reasons. We should separate those who are going over there to fight and those trying to do harm in Canada itself. I think there is no particular one profile of anyone who joins. Each one has their own specific reasons. I think we need to be aware of that. I think secondly, I think, we don't like talking about it. In Canada, I don't know about the States, we really need to look at the foreign policies that we are pursuing. Canada used to be seen as a very impartial, compassionate country in foreign affairs and the role we played there. Now I think it is not quite as impartial and fair. So I think Muslims also feel a little bit let down or disheartened by that. Also, of course, the thing is about one's identity and what it is. I don't think it is to do with multiculturalism or not being, but I think it is to do with one's culture and identity and so on. If we are talking about these girls going from Quebec, there has been a lot happening sort of anti-Muslim feelings happening in Quebec in the last year and a half or two years. So I think that is also a factor. I agree with [Mia] on some points. Let's contextualize this. What is happening for the youth in general, we do have a serious issue in North America with mental health. We know that youth are going an identity from 16 to 21, 22, they can be easily lured. They are looking for a sense of belonging. They want to join. Either they join a gang or drugs or some world. So, unfortunately with the Muslim youth, they may be very vulnerable through the internet, as we see now, internet seems to be taking all the blame, rather than mosques or places that are traditional. So these youth, especially these women, we don't see them, these youth in general and the women from the mosque's perspective, we don't know them. We don't know why this is happening. What we found is that internet, as you heard, websites, they are promising all these young girls to be married. A lot of young girls just want to be married and settle and have children, find someone to love. There is this sense of adventure, going overseas and leaving home. There is the impetus behind just leaving parents. You don't want to be under the authority of the parents at 16 or 17. You are told to do things. Now it is a chance to be somewhere free. This is how they are lured.