Abstract
Understanding the motivations, intentions, and capabilities of terror organizations is highly important to understanding and assessing the risk they present, and to implement effective counter-terror measures. Currently, research of terror organizations consists of designated areas such as economy, security, cyber, and media. Despite ample research on the psychology of the individual terrorist, research regarding the terror organization as a group entity is scarce. The present paper thus presents an exploratory typology, based on both individual and group psychology, which is designed to provide a psychological assessment of terror organizations. Applying a deductive thematic analysis approach, the profiles of three terror organizations: Hezbollah, Hamas, and IS, were analyzed using a five-dimension typology. The data relating to the three organizations was based on two main sources. First, academic journals and official releases by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and second, official publications in Arabic by the organizations themselves. Results show different profiles for the three organizations in terms of their psychological maturity. We propose that different approaches to countering terrorism may be considered based on each organization's unique profile.
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