ABSTRACT Leadership decapitation, as a means of hindering the operations and hastening the demise of terrorist organizations, has been the subject of a growing body of research. However, these studies have not examined how an organization’s position in a broader network impacts its ability to weather decapitation. We argue that highly networked organizations possess characteristics that make decapitation less effective. To test this argument, we combine data on leadership decapitation with network data on terrorist organizations and find that well-networked organizations are resilience to leadership decapitation. Our study has implications for our understanding of how terrorist organizations respond to counterterrorism efforts.

中文翻译：

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太重要了，无法失败？恐怖网络与领导斩首

摘要领导斩首是阻止行动和加快恐怖组织灭亡的一种手段，已成为越来越多的研究主题。但是，这些研究尚未研究组织在更广泛的网络中的地位如何影响其抵御头目的能力。我们认为，高度网络化的组织具有使斩首无效的特征。为了验证这一论点，我们将有关领导斩首的数据与有关恐怖组织的网络数据结合在一起，并发现组织良好的组织具有抵御领导斩首的能力。我们的研究对我们了解恐怖组织如何应对反恐努力具有重要意义。