Choose Your Weapon: The Impact of Strategic Considerations and Resource Constraints on Terrorist Group Weapon Selection

Koehler-Derrick, Gabriel; Milton, D. J.

doi:10.1080/09546553.2017.1293533

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…type of weapon used and the target of the attack) can be viewed through a constraints lens. For example, most terrorist attacks involve either “the gun or the bomb” (Koehler-Derrick & Milton, 2019), both of which offer unique advantages and limitations concerning malevolent innovation. For example, explosives generally increase the novelty value of attacks given their adaptability in terms of the components of the weapons system as well as the delivery method (Gill et al, 2013; Logan et al, 2019).…”

Section: Constraint Types and Malevolent Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints to malevolent innovation in terrorist attacks.

Logan¹,

Damadzic²,

Medeiros³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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Creativity has been considered the driving force of organizational change. Despite the benevolent nature of creativity, the success of organizations fostering a creative product may be used for malevolent purposes. This two-part study explores the constraints to malevolent innovation in the context of terrorism. Drawing from a large sample of terrorist attacks coded for creativity and innovation, study 1 focuses on the relationship between weapon and target characteristics of terrorist attacks and the novelty and relevance dimensions of malevolent innovation. Building on this, study 2 explores how different types of internal and external constraints manifest in terrorist attacks. In line with recent theory, the results suggest that internal constraints motivate the use of novel tactics in terrorist attacks. However, both internal and external constraints can also lead to failures, ultimately diminishing the functional relevance of the attack. Conclusions from this study extend the theory of constraints to the novel arena of terrorist research and provide a new lens from which to understand the failures and successes of terrorist attacks.

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Section: Constraint Types and Malevolent Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraints to malevolent innovation in terrorist attacks.

Logan¹,

Damadzic²,

Medeiros³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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“…It is important to note that all of these weapon choice criteria cannot be understood as general rules for terrorist decision-making. Rather, they should be seen as indicators for weapon choices that are highly dependent on specific ideologies, organizational structures and capabilities of terrorist groups [1,17,21,41,45]. For example, the weapon choice pattern of so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant inspired lone operators in Western Europe might be completely different from the weapon choice pattern of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Colombia.…”

Section: The Terrorist Weapon Rating Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weapons of Mass Destruction—Conceptual and Ethical Issues with Regard to terrorism

Feltes

2021

Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications

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The concept of WMD is part of numerous national laws and is the core of one of the most important treaties of the United Nations (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction, 1992; United Nation Office of Disarmament Affairs in The convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and on their destruction, 1975). Yet, the definition of what should be considered a WMD is far from established and subject to controversial debates. Academics, policymakers, and legislators have been introducing a variety of partly conflicting conceptualizations of WMD into scientific debates, public discourse, and legislations over the last eight decades.

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“…We arrive at these expectations for two reasons. First, each weapon type is associated with a differential degree of expertise (Koehler-Derrick & Milton, 2017). In general, explosives require more skill to successfully build and detonate compared to the skill necessary to use a gun.…”

Section: Study 2: the Characteristics Of Tactical Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Next, we expect that attacks high in relevance are more likely to use firearms and less likely to use explosives compared to other weapon types (Hypothesis 2). This is based on the notion that explosives are less precise and more apt to failure compared to firearms (Koehler-Derrick & Milton, 2017). Learning to use a firearm requires relatively little skills, and the ergonomics of guns make them less prone to failure compared to explosives.…”

Section: Study 2: the Characteristics Of Tactical Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Tactical Innovation in Terrorist Attacks

Logan

Ligon

Derrick³

2019

Journal of Creative Behavior

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Terrorism provides a unique context for examining innovation, as the generation of novel, effective, and complex ideas are essential for survival in destructive and malevolent groups. Despite this, innovation remains an underdeveloped concept in terrorism research, at least from the creativity scholars. One reason for this is the limited empirical data about this phenomenon, making it unclear which tenets of creativity research hold versus which do not translate in the domain of terrorism. This two-part study explores this rich domain by examining the dimensions of innovation in a robust sample of terrorist attacks. Findings indicated that three dimensions of innovation (i.e., novelty, relevance, and elegance) emerged from the attack data and that these dimensions were related to different attack characteristics. This article expands our understanding of terrorist innovation by drawing from established theory and methods from creativity research and highlights their manifestations in this understudied domain.

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Choose Your Weapon: The Impact of Strategic Considerations and Resource Constraints on Terrorist Group Weapon Selection

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Constraints to malevolent innovation in terrorist attacks.

Constraints to malevolent innovation in terrorist attacks.

Weapons of Mass Destruction—Conceptual and Ethical Issues with Regard to terrorism

Measuring Tactical Innovation in Terrorist Attacks

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