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Mitakides Dissertation.pdf (1.17 MB)

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Stayin' Alive: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Inconsistent Effects of Leadership Decapitation on Terrorist Organizations

Mitakides, Katherine W
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3324-5488
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1512135357060777

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Political Science.
The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study is to provide policymakers with a more-complete understanding of the varying effectiveness of leadership decapitation as a counterterrorism technique. To this end, my central research question asks, “why do certain terrorist groups endure despite experiencing leadership decapitation?”. Drawing on previous studies of terrorism and theories of organizational behavior, I suggest that a high degree of bureaucratization and the provision of social services reduce the destabilizing effects of leadership decapitation by decreasing a group’s functional dependence on any single individual to secure the resources necessary to survive. The first phase of this study is a qualitative exploration of two existing explanations of organizational endurance, bureaucracy and incentive-based organizational maintenance, that should, prima facie, explain leadership decapitation’s varying outcomes. I use a deviant case study of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, one of the oldest and most important politically-violent groups in history, to illustrate existing explanations’ weaknesses and to find evidence linking my proposed characteristics to the outcome of survival. Based on my qualitative findings, I generate a set of hypotheses about the relationship between select organization-level factors and the effectiveness of leadership decapitation. I then test these hypotheses on a unique dataset of 138 terrorist organizations using both descriptive and binary logistic regression statistical analyses to determine their applicability to a wider class of cases. The quantitative results indicate that my hypotheses are partially supported by the data: While providing social services is by far the strongest predictor of an organization’s likelihood of surviving leadership decapitation, the relationship between bureaucracy and survival was found to be non-significant. After discussing the implications of these findings, I present a preliminary set of counterterrorism strategies that target terrorist organizations’ means of organizational maintenance rather than their leaders, and then conclude with suggestions for future research.
John Rothgeb (Committee Chair)
Venelin Ganev (Committee Member)
Warren Mason (Committee Member)
168 p.
International Relations; Political Science
leadership decapitation; terrorist organizations; social services; counterterrorism; organization theory; bureaucracy

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mitakides, K. W. (2017). Stayin' Alive: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Inconsistent Effects of Leadership Decapitation on Terrorist Organizations [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1512135357060777

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mitakides, Katherine. Stayin' Alive: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Inconsistent Effects of Leadership Decapitation on Terrorist Organizations. 2017. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1512135357060777.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mitakides, Katherine. "Stayin' Alive: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Inconsistent Effects of Leadership Decapitation on Terrorist Organizations." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1512135357060777

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.