The war on terror: Separating the (star) fish from the sea

Though hardly a new phenomenon, terrorism has assumed greater political saliency since the events of 9/11. Unfortunately, this greater saliency has not resulted in more effective strategies to counter the terrorist threat, the nature of which is often poorly understood. This essay describes terrorism as a method, then develops a model of what terrorist organizations look like and how they function, focusing on their evolution from hierarchical insurgent groups of the pre 9/11 era to network-like structures of today, such as al-Qaeda. Mao Zedong’s dictum about insurgency says, “The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea. ”Counterinsurgent strategy has often attempted to “drain the sea”- i.e., separate the guerrilla from his support base in the population. By implication, this essay will point out that counterterrorist strategies against contemporary terrorist networks must adapt this drain-the-sea principle to the network model if effective policies are to be developed.