The Pebble and the Avalanche

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Current Revolutions in Business and Technology

by Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky,

author of The Pebble and The Avalanche: How Taking Things Apart Creates Revolutions

 

Thu, 2007-Jul-05, 12:49

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Is Terrorism Effective?

This paper argues that "disaggregating the terrorist campaign by objective type" shows that terror campaigns against civilians are generally ineffective.

I actually don't agree with the author because he failed to disaggregation far enough. For example, the author accepts the English-language version of the stated goals of Islamist terror organizations, whereas these organizations often issue more radical versions of their objective in Arabic; it's necessary to separate and analyze these two different versions of objectives. And, of course, people who commit massive acts of murder in the hope of (eventual) favorable publicity are not necessarily forthcoming about their true objectives...

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