Why Can’t We Be Friends? Explaining Relationship Variance Within Transnational Terror Organizations
Date
2018
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Tri-College users only
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Abstract
Why do some jihadi branches enjoy closer relationships with their parent organization than others? Given that all branches belong to the same organization, any variance cannot be chalked up to organizational desire—it would benefit the group far more if there was consistency across the board, allowing for the core leadership to exercise maximum control to achieve their goals. Empirically, though, this proves not to be the case. Acknowledging relationship variance between branches is important as these relationships can be indicative of the group’s larger capabilities, as well as whether commonly used counterterrorism techniques like leadership decapitation would be effective in combatting the group or the branch in question. By merging business literature on franchising and relationship formation with terrorism scholarship on organization techniques, a unique framework was developed to help to explain this variance in core-branch relations. Drawing on the literature, a set of possible explanations was proposed, ranging from preference divergence to constraints on communication. These were then tested through case studies, with a focus on al Qaeda branches in Iraq and Yemen. This helped to illustrate the importance of ideological similarities and personal relationships in the development of positive core-branch relations.