How terrorist groups end -- Policing and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo -- Politics and the FMLN in El Salvador -- Military force and Al Qa'ida in Iraq -- The limits of America's Al Qa'ida strategy -- Ending the 'war' on terrorism.

The United States cannot conduct an effective counterterrorism campaign against al Qa'ida or other terrorist groups without understanding how such groups end. While it is clear that U.S. policy makers will need to turn to a range of policy instruments to conduct such campaigns including careful police and intelligence work, military force, political negotiations, and economic sanctions what is less clear is how they should prioritize U.S.A recent RAND research effort sheds light on this issue by investigating how terrorist groups have ended in the past. By analyzing a comprehensive roster of terrorist groups that existed worldwide between 1968 and 2006, the authors found that most groups ended because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they negotiated a settlement with their governments. Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended, and few groups within this time frame achieved victory. These findings suggest that the U.S. approach to countering al Qa'ida has focused far too much on the use of military force. Instead, policing and intelligence should be the backbone of U.S. efforts. This Research Brief focuses on the following topics: First Systematic Examination of the End of Terrorist Groups, and Police-Oriented Counterterrorism Rather Than a "War on Terrorism."

This monograph reviews events since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and discusses the current state of al Qaeda and the kinds of actions that can be expected of it in the future. Al Qaeda constitutes the most serious immediate threat to the security of the United States, so the campaign against terrorism must remain focused. The monograph describes the central elements that must be emphasized in the next, more-complex phase of that campaign.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Examines terrorists¿ involvement in a variety of crimes ranging from motor vehicle violations, immigration fraud, and mfg. illegal firearms to counterfeiting, armed bank robbery, and smuggling weapons of mass destruction. There are 3 parts: (1) Compares the criminality of internat. jihad groups with domestic right-wing groups. (2) Six case studies of crimes includes trial transcripts, official reports, previous scholarship, and interviews with law enforce. officials and former terrorists are used to explore skills that made crimes possible; or events and lack of skill that the prevented crimes. Includes brief bio. of the terrorists along with descriptions of their org., strategies, and plots. (3) Analysis of the themes in closing arguments of the transcripts in Part 2. Illus.

One of the central pillars of US counterterrorism policy is that capturing or killing a terrorist group's leader is effective. Yet this pillar rests more on a foundation of faith than facts. In Leadership Decapitation, Jenna Jordan examines over a thousand instances of leadership targeting—involving groups such as Hamas, al Qaeda, Shining Path, and ISIS—to identify the successes, failures, and unintended consequences of this strategy. As Jordan demonstrates, group infrastructure, ideology, and popular support all play a role in determining how and why leadership decapitation succeeds or fails. Taking heed of these conditions is essential to an effective counterterrorism policy going forward.

"Harmony and Disharmony..."a study, conducted by the faculty and research fellows of the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point, serves multiple purposes, the most important of which is contributing to the depth of knowledge about the terrorist al-Qa'ida movement. Evidence supporting the conclusions and recommendations provided in this report is drawn from a collection of newly-released al-Qa'ida documents captured during recent operations in support of the Global War on Terror and maintained in the Department of Defense's Harmony database. In the text of these documents, readers will see how explicit al-Qa'ida has been in its internal discussions covering a range of organizational issues, particularly regarding the internal structure and functioning of the movement as well as with tensions that emerged within the leadership.

Terror Groups. Global War on Terrorism Combating a Modern Hydra Al Qaeda and the Global War on Terrorism Sean N. Kalic Global War on Terrorism Occasional Paper 8 On 11 September 2001 a new epoch in warfare emerged. With Al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington DC, the United States suffered one of the most catastrophic attacks on the continental United States in the nation's history. Nineteen days after the attacks, President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress and stated, "Our war on terrorism begins with Al Qaeda, but does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated."I n essence, the president confirmed the opening of the US-led global war on terrorism (GWOT). Unlike previous experiences in which the United States has gone to war, in this new era of warfare, the enemy is fundamentally different. In the past, the United States went to war against nations, regimes, and alliances. In stark contrast within the parameters of the GWOT, the enemy is not a traditional nation-state, regime, or alliance structure. Rather, non-state actors seek to use terrorism and violence to advance their political, theological, and ideological agendas. Since the entire international community structure has been and is based upon traditional nation-states, the GWOT era presents some specific legal, political, and social complications. The objective of this study, however, is to analyze how the terrorist organizations have adapted to the actions taken by the United States and its international allies to win the war on terrorism. Since 11 September 2001, the United States and its allies have pursued terrorist organizations by using a wide variety of law enforcement, financial, military, and diplomatic tools. While the conglomerate of actions taken by the US-led coalition have impacted the organizational structure, finances, and operations of terrorist regimes, these non-state actor remain flexible, resilient, and adaptive in the current security environment.

Annotation This work answers questions concerning the length of time that terrorist campaigns last and when targeting leadership finishes a group. It examines a wide range of historical examples to identify the ways in which almost all terrorist groups die out.

Like all other terrorist movements, al-Qaeda will end. While it has traits that exploit and reflect the current international context, it is not utterly without precedent: some aspects of al-Qaeda are unusual, but many are not. Terrorist groups end according to recognisable patterns that have persisted for centuries, and they reflect, among other factors, the counter-terrorist policies taken against them. It makes sense to formulate those policies with a specific image of an end in mind. Understanding how terrorism ends is the best way to avoid being manipulated by the tactic. There is vast historical experience with the decline and ending of terrorist campaigns, yet few policymakers are familiar with it. This paper first explains five typical strategies of terrorism and why Western thinkers fail to grasp them. It then describes historical patterns in ending terrorism to suggest how insights from that history can lay a foundation for more effective counter-strategies. Finally, it extracts policy prescriptions specifically relevant to ending the campaign of al-Qaeda and its associates, moving towards a post-al-Qaeda world.