Terrorism

Terrorism is a global issue that many countries are concerned about. Terror groups are thought to arise as rebel organizations or people against a specific country or culture (Pras et al., 2016). Terrorists instill fear by attacking and killing innocent civilians. There are various terror groups operating across the continent. For example, under Bin Laden's effective leadership, Al Qaeda and ISIS, as well as Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab terror groups in African countries. According to Van Rompuy et al. (2017), various terror groups have a diverse range of adherents with varying cultures, beliefs, and traditions. The teams, however, have a same goal. Moreover, these terror groups have behavioral and psychological factors among their members. However, these factors are facilitated through the reliable and efficient leadership of the teams. Cohen et al. (2017) elaborate that terrorist’s leaders use different mechanisms and tools to modify the behavioral elements of their followers. Therefore, this essay focuses on various devices and techniques used by effective terrorist leaders to adjust the psychological, behavioral, and operational factors. The study explores multiple published articles about Bin Laden to investigate the useful tools and approaches terrorist leaders used among their followers (Van Rompuy et al., 2017). The study would consider religion, children, lavish lifestyles, and use of social media as the core tools and techniques used by the terrorist group officials.

Tools and Techniques Commonly Used By Terrorist Team Leaders

Several studies and reports have been established and conducted on crucial terror groups and the types of devices they are using to obtain more followers. Pras et al. (2016) elaborate that several terrorist groups employ the use of various tools and mechanisms. But the most common methods used by the terror group leaders include religion, lavish lifestyles, efficient use of social media, children (the next generation).These mechanisms and tools are essential for the modification of the behavioral and psychological factors of the members (followers) .currently. There is an increase in the number of westerners and Americans (12,000-15,000) who are seeking to join the ISIS groups (Van Rompuy et al., 2017). This has been combined with the extensive support that these individuals have been receiving on different grounds. As a result, it is suggested that the online efforts are paying off.

According to Cohen et al.(2017), despite religion being a subject of debate that no individual want to engage in, terrorist group leaders use the doctrine as an essential tool of gaining more followers. For example, the Muslims are taught the principles behind Jihadist. Several terror groups align themselves with religion to provide adequate teaching to their followers. For example, some doctrine argues that the more an individual kills the higher chances of becoming a hero or joining the most top power. The next tool is the next generation who are the children. If children are raised in violent fueled environments, they start believing in a terror group and accept to live according to its principles (Van Rompuy et al., 2017). As a result, children would start to follow in that direction. Moreover, they raise a question that who would not wish to stays in a luxurious house with endless payment? Based on the expensive lifestyles of the terrorist, children cannot refuse to accept such offer. Moreover, terror groups through their leaders promise new members better lifestyle that they cannot turn down. For example, the Al Qaeda pledges its new member free expensive mansions and ransom payments.

Pras et al. (2016) argue that terrorist activities are considered dynamic, political, coercive, deliberate, and psychological. This has been supported by Fathali Moghaddam, a professor who argues that the radicalization process is primarily staircase to global terrorism (Van Rompuy et al., 2017).But propaganda regarding terrorists is always made present on many extremist settings where an individual can access and download latest brochures, videos, and newsletters. Due to increase in the invention in technology, terrorist organizations effectively employ the use of social media for their operations. These include Twitter, the Facebook accounts, and Whatsup. Additionally, the terror groups use cyber detectives and commands in determining and allocating various sites for their activities. Terrorist officials and group members consider using Twitter since it helps in concealing their profiles. Pras et al. (2016) argue that despite often being deleted, it is easy to create a new twitter account within the shortest period. But ISIS has continuously engaged in using other systems of social media to gain more followers. But after the video clip surfaced of the USA journalist being brutalized and beheaded by the ISIS, The social media immediately suspended and issued a ban on various profiles related to the organization. Most terrorist groups use the internet in distributing materials and conducting a successful meeting in private places.

Conclusion

Terrorism is an issue of global concern to many nations across the globe. It occurs due to the formation of various rebel groups. Moreover, terrorist groups are well structured with efficient leadership systems. Some of the common terrorist groups include Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and Al-Shabaab. The critical effects of these groups are loss of lives, destruction of property, and creating political, social and economic instability in different countries. It is believed that all the terrorists' groups have a shared vision which is attacking and killing. However, in achieving their missions and objectives, terrorist effective team leaders use different tools and techniques. The primary devices identified include religion which provides adequate education on ethical principles of joining terror groups, use of social media that has enhanced and facilitated the operations of the terrorist groups. The social media platforms mostly being used is Twitter and Whatsup since they are easy to delete and create. Moreover, terrorist leaders rely on them since it helps in concealing their identity. The essay considers an establishment of effective mechanisms of combating terrorism.











































References

Cohen, K., Johansson, F., Kaati, L., & Mork, J. C. (2014). Detecting linguistic markers for radical violence in social media. Terrorism and Political Violence, 26(1), 246-256.

Pras, A., Santanna, J. J., Steinberger, J., & Sperotto, A. (2016, April). DDoS 3.0-How terrorists bring down the internet. In International GI/ITG Conference on Measurement, Modelling, and Evaluation of Computing Systems and Dependability and Fault Tolerance (pp. 1-4). Springer, Cham.

Van Rompuy, H., Bonazzi, R., Frontini, A., Ritzmann, A., Manea, E., Goodwin, M., ... & Abbas, T. (2017). The challenge of Jihadist radicalisation. In Europe and beyond. 2017.