The core of a terrorist organization’s viability is its claim to be acting altruistically, on behalf of a larger cause. This claim of legitimacy is the source of its strength, but also its vulnerability: if a group miscalculates and targets poorly, the blunder is potentially more damaging than a comparable error by the state. States have a degree of immortality in the international system; groups do not. Governments are expected to be hypocritical; terrorist organizations cannot afford it. States that fail to publicize and exploit targeting errors by terrorist groups are missing a time-honored
...more
