We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode The Terrorist’s Dilemma: How Nonstate Actors Manage Covert Organizations

The Terrorist’s Dilemma: How Nonstate Actors Manage Covert Organizations

2023/4/7
logo of podcast Irregular Warfare Podcast

Irregular Warfare Podcast

Shownotes Transcript

Be sure to visit the Irregular Warfare Initiative's new website, www.irregularwarfare.org), to see all of the new articles, podcast episodes, and other content the IWI team is producing!

It’s been described as the “terrorist’s dilemma”—the trade-offs between maintaining security and exercising command and control that terrorist organizations must make. But how can counterterrorism campaigns be designed to exploit that dilemma? What do government agencies and organizations charged with countering terrorist threats need to know about those pressures? And how should an understanding of the dilemma inform the development of counterterrorism policy?

To explore those questions, hosts Jeff Phaneuf and Adam Darnley-Stuart are joined by two guests with deep expertise on the subject. Dr. Jake Shapiro directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project at Princeton University and is the author of the book that forms the basis of this discussion, The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations. And retired Colonel Chris Costa is currently the executive director of the International Spy Museum and has decades of experience running and participating in intelligence and special operations around the world.

Intro music: "Unsilenced)" by Ketsa)

Outro music: "Launch)" by Ketsa)

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)