A Business Model for Counterterrorism Innovation: Shaping Innovation Strategies in Defense Systems and Diagnosing Innovation Strategies in Terror Actors

Abstract

In the phenomenon of war, be it a war between armies, a war waged by terror groups, or a war on terror, each side strives for “supremacy” over its adversaries with the aim of demoralizing their rivals into quitting the fight or giving up their resistance. For these aims to materialize, each side must devise a relevant strategy and then implement a plan of action from that strategy. In the competitive world of business, this activity is called a “business model”. The war on terror is still a strategic challenge to which effective and efficient solutions have yet to be found. Once militaries, defense organizations and counterterror organizations understand the terror groups’ “business model”, they can take their first step toward devising an effective and efficient counterstrategy. This counterstrategy is meant to foil terror groups’ hostile action plans, reduce their freedom of operation and ultimately neutralize them and cause them to collapse. Despite the many differences between terror organizations operating globally in the present and those that were active in the past, this study questions whether there are any similarities to be found in the traits of their operations, using a business model framework. Moreover, it questions if such a business model could be used to understand innovation processes in terror organizations. This article proposes a novice “business innovation model” framework, based on assembling well-known business models from the world of competitive business innovation management, which will lead to the discovery of terror groups’ innovation and renewal strategies.