ABSTRACT
The potential for any terrorist organization to stage acts of political violence and intimidation is directly related to the group’s technological and organizational capabilities. Prominent among such capabilities is the terrorist group’s ability to learn from experience and store this knowledge in routines to guide subsequent behavior. Terrorist groups do not automatically or immediately gain the ability to use given tactics or carry out particular types of operations. Capabilities, including those that facilitate learning, must be developed. In designing attacks, selecting targets, and using technologies for violent ends, terrorist groups gather information, integrate it with their past experience, and put it to use. The strengths and weaknesses of these learning processes not only help explain what a terrorist group is capable of doing today, but also help anticipate what it might be capable of tomorrow. With sufficient understanding of a group’s learning processes, new policy interventions may be designed to undermine these efforts. Directing analytical attention not to what terrorists do, but how they learn to do it may provide counter-terrorism officials with the opportunity to degrade the capabilities of extremist groups and reduce the effectiveness of their attacks.
