Terrorism Strategy or Strategies of Terrorism?

Abstract

Terrorism is both a strategy in itself and also has several strategies. While terrorism can be seen as a strategy which is used by countries and terrorist organizations, terrorist organizations also use several strategies. There are five principal strategic logics of costly signaling at work in terrorist campaigns: attrition, intimidation, provocation, spoiling, and outbidding. Effective counterstrategies cannot be designed without first understanding the strategic logic that drives terrorist violence. This paper will analyze the relations among goal, strategy and tactic and investigate whether terrorism is a strategy or not. In the concluding section, paper will discuss the strategies of terrorism and conditions favorable to each strategies.