عنوان

Terror, Territory, and Targets: Theorizing Terrorist Group Target Selection in Iraq, 2012-2016

Number

TL51495

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Terror, Territory, and Targets: Theorizing Terrorist Group Target Selection in Iraq, 2012-2016

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Hoffman, Paul J.

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Ganguly, Sumit

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Indiana University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2019

Text of Note

201 p.

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Indiana University

Text preceding or following the note

2019

Text of Note

Why do insurgent groups that employ terrorism as a strategy attack certain types of targets? What explains a group's target preferences, and why do these target selection preferences change throughout the group's existence? While target selection is the product of decision-making processes which are shaped by a group's interaction with its environment, I argue that a group's control of territory is a key predictor of its target selection preferences. Using incident data from the Global Terrorism Database, I study the Islamic State's target preferences in Iraq from January 2012 to December 2016 in five Iraqi cities: Kirkuk, Hawija, Fallujah, Ramadi, and Mosul. I examine preferences at the city level to compare how territorial control influences target selection. I find that when control is contested, groups tend to attack police targets to provide greater freedom of action. As the group gains the upper hand over the state, it attacks military targets to eliminate threats. In periods of complete terrorist control, groups attack civilians to maintain their gains and as mechanism to ensure compliance with laws. Territorial control is distributed unevenly throughout the state, and this distribution explains why a group may favor different target types in different locations in the same timeframe. These results suggest that counterterror strategies should be tailored to local conditions rather than macroscopic state-level approaches. These findings are derived from cases involving the Islamic State's control of territory in Iraq, and should be tested in other cases to determine their generalizability.

Subject Term

International relations

Subject Term

Political science

Hoffman, Paul J.

Ganguly, Sumit

Indiana University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y