Edgar S. Furniss Book Award: Jacob Shapiro

October 13, 2015

12:30PM - 2:00PM

Mershon Center for International Security Studies

Add to Calendar 2015-10-13 12:30:00 2015-10-13 14:00:00 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award: Jacob Shapiro Register for this event on the Mershon Center for International Security Studies website. Jacob N. Shapiro is associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and co-directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project. His active research projects study political violence, economic and political development in conflict zones, security policy, and urban conflict. He is author of The Terrorist's Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations, winner of the 2013 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award from the Mershon Center. His research has been published or is forthcoming in broad range of academic and policy journals including American Journal of Political Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Political Economy, and World Politics, as well as a number of edited volumes. Shapiro is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an associate editor of World Politics, faculty fellow of the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies, research fellow at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, associate fellow of the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and served in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve. He holds a doctorate in political science and a master's in economics from Stanford University, and earned a bachelor's in political science from University of Michigan. Each year, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University recognizes an exceptional author who makes an outstanding contribution to the field of international relations and global security with the Furniss Book Award. The award commemorates the founding director of the Mershon Center, Edgar S. Furniss. The Furniss Award was given for the first time in 1983 and has been awarded to several of the field's most influential scholars, including John Mearshimer, Barry Posen, and Stephen Walt. The author receives a cash award and is invited to address the Mershon Center. Abstract How do terrorist groups control their members? Do the tools groups use to monitor their operatives and enforce discipline create security vulnerabilities that governments can exploit? The Terrorist's Dilemma is the first book to systematically examine the great variation in how terrorist groups are structured. Employing a broad range of agency theory, historical case studies, and terrorists' own internal documents, Shapiro provocatively discusses the core managerial challenges that terrorists face and illustrates how their political goals interact with the operational environment to push them to organize in particular ways. Shapiro provides a historically informed explanation for why some groups have little hierarchy, while others resemble miniature firms, complete with line charts and written disciplinary codes. Looking at groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, he highlights how consistent and widespread the terrorist's dilemma -- balancing the desire to maintain control with the need for secrecy -- has been since the 1880s. Through an analysis of more than a hundred terrorist autobiographies he shows how prevalent bureaucracy has been, and he utilizes a cache of internal documents from al-Qa'ida in Iraq to outline why this deadly group used so much paperwork to handle its people. Tracing the strategic interaction between terrorist leaders and their operatives, Shapiro closes with a series of comparative case studies, indicating that the differences in how groups in the same conflict approach their dilemmas are consistent with an agency theory perspective. The Terrorist's Dilemma demonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity. Mershon Center for International Security Studies OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

Add to Calendar 2015-10-13 12:30:00 2015-10-13 14:00:00 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award: Jacob Shapiro Register for this event on the Mershon Center for International Security Studies website.  Jacob N. Shapiro is associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and co-directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project. His active research projects study political violence, economic and political development in conflict zones, security policy, and urban conflict. He is author of The Terrorist's Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations, winner of the 2013 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award from the Mershon Center. His research has been published or is forthcoming in broad range of academic and policy journals including American Journal of Political Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Political Economy, and World Politics, as well as a number of edited volumes. Shapiro is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an associate editor of World Politics, faculty fellow of the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies, research fellow at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, associate fellow of the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and served in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve. He holds a doctorate in political science and a master's in economics from Stanford University, and earned a bachelor's in political science from University of Michigan. Each year, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University recognizes an exceptional author who makes an outstanding contribution to the field of international relations and global security with the Furniss Book Award. The award commemorates the founding director of the Mershon Center, Edgar S. Furniss. The Furniss Award was given for the first time in 1983 and has been awarded to several of the field's most influential scholars, including John Mearshimer, Barry Posen, and Stephen Walt. The author receives a cash award and is invited to address the Mershon Center. Abstract How do terrorist groups control their members? Do the tools groups use to monitor their operatives and enforce discipline create security vulnerabilities that governments can exploit? The Terrorist's Dilemma is the first book to systematically examine the great variation in how terrorist groups are structured. Employing a broad range of agency theory, historical case studies, and terrorists' own internal documents, Shapiro provocatively discusses the core managerial challenges that terrorists face and illustrates how their political goals interact with the operational environment to push them to organize in particular ways. Shapiro provides a historically informed explanation for why some groups have little hierarchy, while others resemble miniature firms, complete with line charts and written disciplinary codes. Looking at groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, he highlights how consistent and widespread the terrorist's dilemma -- balancing the desire to maintain control with the need for secrecy -- has been since the 1880s. Through an analysis of more than a hundred terrorist autobiographies he shows how prevalent bureaucracy has been, and he utilizes a cache of internal documents from al-Qa'ida in Iraq to outline why this deadly group used so much paperwork to handle its people. Tracing the strategic interaction between terrorist leaders and their operatives, Shapiro closes with a series of comparative case studies, indicating that the differences in how groups in the same conflict approach their dilemmas are consistent with an agency theory perspective. The Terrorist's Dilemma demonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity. Mershon Center for International Security Studies Department of Political Science polisci@osu.edu America/New_York public

Jacob N. Shapiro is associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and co-directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project. His active research projects study political violence, economic and political development in conflict zones, security policy, and urban conflict.

He is author of The Terrorist's Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations, winner of the 2013 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award from the Mershon Center. His research has been published or is forthcoming in broad range of academic and policy journals including American Journal of Political Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Political Economy, and World Politics, as well as a number of edited volumes.

Shapiro is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an associate editor of World Politics, faculty fellow of the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies, research fellow at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, associate fellow of the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and served in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve.

He holds a doctorate in political science and a master's in economics from Stanford University, and earned a bachelor's in political science from University of Michigan.

Each year, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University recognizes an exceptional author who makes an outstanding contribution to the field of international relations and global security with the Furniss Book Award. The award commemorates the founding director of the Mershon Center, Edgar S. Furniss.

The Furniss Award was given for the first time in 1983 and has been awarded to several of the field's most influential scholars, including John Mearshimer, Barry Posen, and Stephen Walt. The author receives a cash award and is invited to address the Mershon Center.

Abstract

How do terrorist groups control their members? Do the tools groups use to monitor their operatives and enforce discipline create security vulnerabilities that governments can exploit? The Terrorist's Dilemma is the first book to systematically examine the great variation in how terrorist groups are structured. Employing a broad range of agency theory, historical case studies, and terrorists' own internal documents, Shapiro provocatively discusses the core managerial challenges that terrorists face and illustrates how their political goals interact with the operational environment to push them to organize in particular ways.

Shapiro provides a historically informed explanation for why some groups have little hierarchy, while others resemble miniature firms, complete with line charts and written disciplinary codes. Looking at groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, he highlights how consistent and widespread the terrorist's dilemma -- balancing the desire to maintain control with the need for secrecy -- has been since the 1880s.

Through an analysis of more than a hundred terrorist autobiographies he shows how prevalent bureaucracy has been, and he utilizes a cache of internal documents from al-Qa'ida in Iraq to outline why this deadly group used so much paperwork to handle its people. Tracing the strategic interaction between terrorist leaders and their operatives, Shapiro closes with a series of comparative case studies, indicating that the differences in how groups in the same conflict approach their dilemmas are consistent with an agency theory perspective.

The Terrorist's Dilemma demonstrates the management constraints inherent to terrorist groups and sheds light on specific organizational details that can be exploited to more efficiently combat terrorist activity.