Networks of Terror: Theoretical Assumptions and Pragmatic Consequences

Abstract

Very little has been written in scholarly or popular venues on the conceptualization and utilization of the term network to describe terrorist organizing. In this paper, we identify critical disjunctures between the assumptions of contemporary communication network theory and the assumptions and appropriation of network concepts by the current U.S. Administration in discussions of terrorism networks. We argue that the theoretical and empirical foundations of contemporary network research provide a more complex and constructive platform from which policy makers may ask better questions and find better solutions.