War on terror

Understanding Terrorist Organizations as Social Movements Is Key to Their Defeat

Before we can answer that question, we have to understand what makes terrorist organizations effective. According to social movement theory, all social movements must have three essential elements to be successful — shared grievances, access to sufficient resources and political opportunities.

Some of the more well-known terrorist leaders and those who have inspired them, such as Sayyid Qutb and Ayman al-Zawahiri, have written about the social nature of their groups. The inherently social nature of terrorist organizations allows us to use social movement theory to understand what these groups require to operate.