Globally Networked Guerillas

Al Qaeda as global networked guerilla's, by David Ronfeldt

"As many analysts have noted, the new information media are enabling terrorists and insurgents to augment their own communication and coordination, as well as reach outside audiences. The online media also suit the oral traditions that tribal peoples prefer. What merits pointing out here is that the jihadis are using the Internet and the Web to inspire the creation of a virtual global tribe of Islamic radicals — an online umma with kinship segments around the world. This can help a member keep in touch with a segment, or re–attach to a new segment in another part of the world as he or she moves around. Thus the information revolution, not to mention broader aspects of globalization, can facilitate a resurgence of intractable tribalism around the world. Al Qaeda and its ilk are a leading example of this." (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_3/ronfeldt/index.html )

See the Global Guerilla blog for the most thorough continuing analysis of globalised networked terrorism, at http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/ ;

Martin Shubik, in his paper "Terrorism, Technology, and the Socioeconomics of Death" conludes that "rapid technological improvement and global information transfer (part of a larger context of interconnectivity) has produced a spike in the ability of small groups to produce mass casualties." See at http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cp/p09b/p0952.pdf

A related item:

P2P organising (i.e. leaderless resistance) on the extreme right:

Here’s an example of P2P organising at the extreme right, related to what is reportedly one the fastest growing radical religion today, the Odinists:

“Today, the number of white racist activists, Aryan revolutionaries, is far greater than you would know by simply looking at traditional organizations. Revolutionaries today do not become members of an organization. They won't participate in a demonstration or a rally or give out their identity to a group that keeps their name on file, because they know that all these organizations are heavily monitored. Since the late 1990s, there has been a general shift away from these groups on the far right. This has also helped Odinism thrive. Odinists took the leaderless resistance concept of [leading white supremacist ideologue] Louis Beam and worked on it, fleshed it out. They found a strategic position between the upper level of known leaders and propagandists, and an underground of activists who do not affiliate as members, but engage instead in decentralized networking and small cells. They do not shave their heads like traditional Skinheads or openly display swastikas.â€? (http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?refname=/intelligenceproject/ip-4q9.html)