¶ … terrorists are rational actors. There rationality may not appear so to those who are not adherents of their particular cause (or in some cases, their particular faith). However, for those who share the conviction of terrorists, their actions are rational. One of the most salient examples that demonstrates the rationality of the actions of terrorists is found within those who embrace the Islamic faith. There are a number of tenets of this religion that pertain to war, particularly when the antagonist is a so-called infidel or non-believer. One of these concepts is that of jihad, which is the Islamic word for holy war (Okon, 2013, p. 173). It is crucial to understanding the rationality of Muslim terrorists to note the fact that Islam states that those who willingly give their life for the cause of the religion or because of religious persecution will be richly rewarded in the afterlife. Thus, a number of Muslim terrorists in regions of the world such as in Israel, truly believe that by killing themselves, and in the process killing...
There has been a lengthy history of Palestinian terrorists in the state of Israel, with a number of suicide bombers willingly detonating themselves so that they can kill Jews in the process. When one considers the religious conviction of the former that states they will be rewarded for their actions, they are clearly rational actors.509). Likewise, in a conventional military context, Davis and Shapiro describe anti-access and area denial as being "cost-imposing strategies," a description these authors suggest is particularly useful in the counterterrorism context. In addition, game theory can help avoid military confrontations altogether, thereby avoiding unnecessary friendly casualties. In this regard, Schofield (1999) emphasizes that, "The inevitability of armed conflict in the classical sense is not a foregone conclusion in a
So-called n-person games include more than two actors or sides….The central problem is that the rational decision for an individual actor such as a state may be to 'defect' and go it alone as opposed to taking a chance on collaboration with another state actor" as did Israel and the ascent of the Likud after Arafat's refusal of the 2000 peace deal (Beavis 2010). Yet saber-rattling no longer seems
In these constructs, the nation-state is seen as the outgrowth of global political arrangements, as global desires for money and power shape the globalizing world (Meyer et al., 1999). But the primary weakness in this paradigm is the fact that a globalized world constructed through political means would be just that, a globalized world, but not necessarily a global civil society. Indeed, such an organization would fail to meet
The narrow selfishness of these terrorists then relate to the well-being of their families in either the positive or negative sense. They engage in suicidal terrorism to either protect their families from the threat of harm, or to provide them with comfort by means of money. On the other hand, Caplan also notes that suicidal terrorism is extremely rare, and is therefore a greater indicator of self-interest among terrorists than
In this scenario, organizations are not viewed as isolated entities, but instead are a part of the entire system of information and action in the world. This definition makes the most sense because most real-life examples of organizations fit this model. For instance, political organizations from the United States major political parties, like the Republicans and Democrats, special interest groups, like Green Peace, and terrorist organizations are often concerned
Decision Making Strategies Within any organization or process, there is the cognitive and purposeful role of decision making that is the result of taking in stimuli, choosing from alternatives, and making a final choice of an action, in action, or choice of action. This is true in the small business world, multinational corporations, individual life, and even with governments. It impacts Foreign Policy, trade, economics, and most certainly the idea of
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