The study of terrorist leadership: where do we go from here?

Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice,Volume 3, Issue 3, Page 208-221, September 2017. Purpose Despite the recognition of the importance of leaders for the formation and ongoing success of social and political movements, the study of leadership in terrorist groups remains underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to stimulate additional research into terrorist leadership in three main ways: by providing a broad overview of the theoretical perspectives that scholars have used to examine terrorist leadership, by critically reviewing the current state of the academic literature on terrorist leadership, and by presenting various ways in which future research on terrorist leadership can be improved. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a conceptual and critical approach to reviewing the scholarly literature on terrorist leadership, and draws upon the author ’s expertise with the wider multidisciplinary literature on leadership to make methodological and conceptual recommendations to improve related future research. Findings There is a paucity of empirical and theoretical research devoted to understanding important social and strategic aspects of te rrorist leadership, and existing scholarly research is largely conducted in isolation with differing methodological and epistemological starting points. This has hampered efforts to measure, operationalize, and understand key concepts involving leadership in terrorist groups. Practical impl...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Source Type: research