Recruiting for the Long Term: Exploring the Effects of Terrorist Recruitment Strategies on Group Longevity
Open Access
Author:
Warshafsky, Julia Rae
Area of Honors:
Political Science
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
James A Piazza, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Michael Barth Berkman, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Terrorism Terrorist Recruitment Terrorist Group Longevity Terrorist Group Survival
Abstract:
Scholars of terrorism have explored several factors in an attempt to explain why some terrorist groups are long lasting while others are short-lived. An important factor that has gone unanalyzed in connection with group longevity, due largely to a severe dearth of open source data on the variable, is terrorist group recruitment. Testing two sets of competing hypotheses, this thesis examines the effects of two terrorist group recruitment strategies – direct recruitment and indirect recruitment – on group longevity. Conducting a series of negative binomial regression estimations using the Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism-United States (PPT-US) dataset, I find that terrorist groups that use indirect recruitment tools are significantly more likely to live longer than groups that do not incorporate these tactics in their recruitment practices. Indirect recruitment methods, the results show, yield the greatest boost in group longevity relative to other recruitment strategies. This finding likely holds important implications for both the understanding and future study of terrorist group recruitment and survival in the New Media age.