Governmental combat of the dynamics of multiple competing terrorist organizations

Abstract

Competition or warfare between terrorist organizations subject to government intervention is analyzed through time. Each terrorist organization consists of ideologues, criminal mercenaries, and captive participants, and may receive capital sponsoring. The three labors and capital are modeled with four differential equations. Intervention towards ideologue labor may limit capital sponsoring enabling growth of mercenary labor. Government intervention towards one terrorist organization may be akin to that terrorist organization facing more asymmetric competition from other terrorist organizations. Eliminating the disadvantaged terrorist organization may enable the other terrorist organizations to grow unboundedly. Intervening to eradicate multiple terrorist organizations simultaneously is challenging. Destroying the advantaged terrorist organization first may be beneficial since the disadvantaged organization gets less time to grow before its subsequent elimination. Intervention which annihilates two terrorist organizations in symmetric competition may fail when one organization faces asymmetric competition. The article illustrates various sequences of extinguishing terrorist organizations, how much to intervene, over which time periods to intervene, and where to intervene.