The High Value of Targeting: A Conceptual Model for Using HVT against a Networked Enemy

Hardy, John William; Lushenko, Paul

doi:10.1080/14702436.2012.703845

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…On the other hand, if lower tier leaders are to be targeted, then government actors should be more proactive in minimizing the threat of militant groups turning to attack civilian targets in retaliation. Of course it is important to note that as part of the broader counterterrorism practice of high value targeting (HVT), leadership decapitation strikes are not always employed solely to reduce attacks on civilians, especially when we consider groups like Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria; in these cases, leadership decapitation has generally sought to degrade the groups’ capabilities across a number of functions of which attack operations is only one (Hardy and Lushenko 2012; Joint Chiefs of Staff 1998; Lushenko 2015). In this context, counterterrorism practitioners may have to weigh the broader benefits of degrading an organization’s leadership against the possibility of short-term retaliatory attacks, especially against civilians.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting Quality or Quantity? The Divergent Effects of Targeting Upper Verses Lower-Tier Leaders of Militant Organizations

Jadoon

Mines

Milton

2022

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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Research on the efficacy of leadership decapitation has focused primarily on targeting the topmost leaders of groups. Yet, most organizations rely on multiple leaders with specific functional or geographical responsibilities, rather than a single symbolic leader. In this context, we pose the following question: how are the effects of leadership decapitation on a group’s short-term operational capacity conditioned by the type or rank of targeted leaders? We argue that due to the risks faced by militant organizations, upper-tier leaders will delegate operational duties to lower-tier leadership for security purposes. Because of the shift of the principal-agent dynamic to lower-tier leaders, targeting of lower ranked leaders versus topmost leaders is more likely to result in a loss of control over foot soldiers, and trigger negative effects such as a rise in indiscriminate violence. We conduct our study using the case of Islamic State Khorasan in Afghanistan, with weekly data on the group’s attacks, and multi-tier leadership losses between 2015–2019 across 72 districts. 1

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting Quality or Quantity? The Divergent Effects of Targeting Upper Verses Lower-Tier Leaders of Militant Organizations

Jadoon

Mines

Milton

2022

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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“…US Army doctrine defines a high-value target as an asset that an enemy commander requires for the completion of his mission. Within the context of Special Operations Forces (SOF), the process of HVT involves precision raids and/or airstrikes to either capture or kill specific assets or individuals required by a clandestine network to achieve its expressed aims (Hardy & Luskenko, 2012). UAVs are said to be advantageous also on the ground, due to their "surgical precision", sparing the lives of civilians.…”

Section: Drone Wars: Legal and Precise?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Russia’s and America’s 21st-century wars: Mirror images?

Hamourtziadou,

Jackson,

Winch

2023

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In this article, we look at 21st-century warfare in the context of two great powers: Russia and America. Russian and American invasions and subsequent wars are evaluated in terms of why and how they are fought, legal and moral considerations, impact, outcomes, and consequences. The article examines similarities and differences in strategy and methods, expanding on the increasingly popular remote warfare. Finally, we assess the decisive role of science and technology in war, raising questions about the future of AI warfare.

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“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. POL analysis can model patterns of association between people, places, and objects to identify nodes, events, patterns, and outliers in relational data [33]. These patterns in individual routines can provide significant insight into personal information without directly accessing private data or employing overt surveillance methods.…”

Section: The Intelligence Statementioning

confidence: 99%

The Rise of the Modern Intelligence State

Hardy¹

2021

Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications

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The rise of the formal surveillance state in the early twenty-first century was precipitated by political impetus to empower security and intelligence organisations to perform a broad range of counterterrorism functions. Ethical debates about the implications of the security intelligence reach of modern states have focused on balancing individual rights, liberties, and privacy against the security of the state. Meanwhile, the surveillance state has rapidly evolved into an intelligence state, capable not only of pervasive data collection, but also of analytical modelling which expands existing boundaries of surveillance. Existing concerns about the ethical collection and use of surveillance data are compounded by three emergent capabilities of the modern intelligence state: persistent data surveillance, pattern-of-life analysis, and activity-based intelligence. These intelligence methods provide descriptive and/or predictive models of human behaviour that empower governments to generate intelligence about the actual and the potential subjects of counterterrorism investigations. The ethical implications of counterterrorism intelligence extend beyond the collection and use of data to the application of predictive modelling to dehumanised patterns of behaviour. This process has the potential to redefine the boundaries of the person, particularly by blurring the distinction between thoughts and actions which threaten the state.

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The High Value of Targeting: A Conceptual Model for Using HVT against a Networked Enemy

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Targeting Quality or Quantity? The Divergent Effects of Targeting Upper Verses Lower-Tier Leaders of Militant Organizations

Targeting Quality or Quantity? The Divergent Effects of Targeting Upper Verses Lower-Tier Leaders of Militant Organizations

Russia’s and America’s 21st-century wars: Mirror images?

The Rise of the Modern Intelligence State

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