Tactical Diversity in Militant Violence

Abstract

Militant groups, like all organizations, face crucial decisions about the strategies that they employ. In this article, we assess why some militant organizations successfully diversify into multiple tactics, while others limit themselves to just one or a few. This is an important puzzle because militant organizations with more diversified tactics are more likely to stretch counterterrorist defenses. Drawing on literatures from business, economics, and organizational studies, we theorize that pressure and competition incentivize groups to diversify their tactical portfolios. The results, which include tests drawn from multiple datasets, show robust support for the notion that tactical diversification is a response to organizational stress stemming from state repression and organizational rivalry. The policy implication is that while countries cannot anticipate the character of future tactical innovations, they may be able to anticipate which groups will most readily adopt them.