How Terrorist Groups Survive: A Dynamic Network Analysis Approach to the Resilience of Terrorist Organizations

School of Advanced Military Studies, May 21, 2009
"The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of how modern terrorist groups manage to survive in the face of aggressive counterterrorist operations by security forces. Al Qa’ida survives to this day, despite the destruction of their Afghanistan sanctuary, the loss of countless key personnel, and continuous pressure by the United States and their allies. Why has al Qa’ida survived? Since much of the literature on terrorism focuses on how to eliminate them, this research paper focuses on why they still endure. In other words, instead of asking, 'How do we kill them,' this research asks, 'Why don’t they die?''
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA507988&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf