the key factors in Al-Qaida’s success, political science assignment help

Please respond to this discussion board post atleast 150 words

The first article by Brynjar Lia discusses the key factors in Al-Qaida’s success:

1.) Message – Unlike the terrorist groups predecessors who tried to convince others to rally behind them in order to build some sort of Utopian Islamic state, Al-Qaida rallied it’s troops and supporters by stating that Islam is under attack.

2.) Image – Al-Qaida secured their place as the most threatening terrorist organization when they orchestrated and successfully executed a plan to bring down the two world trade center towers in New York City. President Bush elevated their status by declaring them an enemy of war instead of solely a terrorist organization.

3.) Global Outreach – Al-Qaida doesn’t discriminate when selecting members as long as the member is willing to accept it’s extremist ideology. Al-Qaida is willing to lend out it’s “brand name” to supporters in order to grow and also advertises it’s ideology quite publicly on the Internet.

Krause’s article discusses how terrorism can be an effective tool used by extremists to reach their goals. He creates a framework for analyzing the effectiveness of a terrorist attack. This framework consists of three levels; tactical, organization, and strategic. In general, the more heinous the act of terrorism is, the more power the terrorist group achieves by controlling people’s actions through intimidation.

Jervis’s article discusses the security dilemma and mentions three dilemma scenarios:

1.) Prisoner’s Dilemma – Although cooperation is in the best interest of both parties, mistrust is likely to lead one party to sacrifice the other in order to serve her/his own interests.

2.) Stag Hunt Game – Cooperation is mandatory in order to achieve the highest level of success for each party however cooperation is not guaranteed whereas if one defaults (which one can guarantee) then they can achieve a miniature success despite their allies then receiving no success as a consequence.

3.) Game of Chicken – Both parties are on a path of self destruction unless one defaults. The desire for power keeps both parties on the path for as long as they are willing to sacrifice their life for power or have the resources to stay on the path. (U.S versus Soviet Union in the Cold War).

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2nd discussion board post please respond atleast 150 words

This weeks readings focused on terrorism. In the article by Kraus he proposed 3 categories to measure the success of terrorist groups and used 9/11 as an example to demonstrate. The first category is tactical meaning the use of violence and creation of fear. Al Queda succeded in this category because they instilled fear in the American people. The second category is organizational which is acheived by the organizatoin surviving and strengthening itself. Al Queda had moderate success here since they were one of the longest lasting terrorism groups in history. Finally the 3rd category is strategic/political. Al Queda failed here since they did not force the US to leave the middle east.

In the article by Jervis he explores the idea of the securtiy dilema. The main question he asks is “why, if there is anarchy int he internatioal system, are we all not dead?” He argues that the central issue in the international system is not only the security dilema but also the problem of collective action. His idea is that for any two stats cooperation would bring success, but since the two states often cannot trust each other enough to do so neither will beneit. Cooperation is most likely when both countries feel secure and less likely when one feels insecure.