This study on terrorism training follows the logic that terrorism is a "wicked problem" and there are various strategies to cope with it. Systems thinking is one of the coping strategies to address "wicked problems." A system is a whole composed of complex organized elements (subsystems) interacting with each other and with their environment. The stability of a system depends on its components' alignment. Misaligning one of its components, will destabilize, or even disrupt the whole system. In this regard, the study defines terrorism and terrorist organizations in systems terms, explains their components and interrelations, and concludes that the most important component of a terrorist system is the training subsystem. Thus it is important to understand how the subsystem functions in order to disrupt the whole system. The study reviews the types of terrorist training, how the terrorists and their organizations learn (process), what the terrorists learn (content), where the terrorists learn (location) and concludes that the internet is the new safe haven for terrorist training. It also demonstrates the adaptive capability of terrorist system moving from land-based to internet-based training. Almost every terrorist organization on the US Sate Department's designated terrorist organizations list exists on the Net. One example is the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) terrorist network. Its website network is analyzed by content and network structure using social network analysis software UCINET. The goal is to develop strategies to eliminate the web presence of the terrorist training subsystem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nps.edu/oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/2401 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Celebi, Erdogan |
| Contributors | Roberts, Nancy, Freeman, Michael, Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)., Defense Analysis |
| Publisher | Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School |
| Source Sets | Naval Postgraduate School |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xvi, 91 p. : ill. ;, application/pdf |
| Rights | Approved for public release, distribution unlimited |
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