Wired reports new evidence that Twitter will contribute to or directly cause the decline and fall of western civilization. The US Army’s 304th Military Intelligence Battallion outlines three possible scenarios for the use of Twitter as a tool by militants for coordinating attacks. How can we prepare for the threat of Twerrorism? (Yes, I made that word up). HT to my coblogger Su for the link. I love the accompanying screen shot.
In a related reading, Bruce Shneier has an interesting piece also in Wired magazine which attempts to change the way you think about terrorism. Citing a Stanford University paper, he argues that the formation of terrorist groups is not primarily a political phenomenon as we have come to believe, and is instead a vehicle for social solidarity. The motives of terrorist recruits, the authors say, is more like those of violent inner city gangs.
They point out that the real political gains from common terrorist tactics are low. If terror is a political failure, a truly different social function must explain their continued use of these tactics. RTWT here.
Are these groups more nihilist gangs than they are Islamist insurgents? The assertion is very convincing, but surely there is still some political dimension. They use political rhetoric for recruitment, their stated goals are political, and they affiliate with or recieve funding from nation states. Although most groups disagree with each other and fight each other, it seems to me that political Islamism and perhaps anti-zionism still loosely aligns many of the groups.
The idea has real implications for how policy can better deal with terrorist groups through a better understanding of the motivations behind them. If these groups are unresponsive to gains and costs, maybe trying to raise the political cost and lower the political gains of terrorism isn’t the right strategy.
HT to Greg Newmark for the second article.
ADDENDUM: A quick summize of ‘Twerrorism’ shows I’m not the only one to be so clever.
