Qaeda's Hierarchal Model

A terrorist organization’s capabilities and reach can be determined by its resources, membership and structure. Although Al Qaeda does not directly manage their daily operations anymore, ISIS, however, claims to have direct control over all of its fighters and residents within its territories. Current patterns display an increased use of loosely affiliated networks that plan and act on generalized guidance to wage war, commit acts of terrorism and even incite fear over its residents. Many organizations have abandoned the hierarchal model for the more favorable network or decentralized model. Both allow for models allow organizations to not be as visible and have not only the main organization, but groups who have the same interests and individuals
Networked Structure allows for an increasingly broader system of networks than other models. Modern groups have a lesser need for the hierarchal structure to coordinate plans and or actions. Instead, they can now thrive on a loose affiliation with groups or even individuals from a vast variety of locations. General goals an organization can now be met with flexibility of cells, groups or even individuals. The efficiency of a network is dependent on several factors. A network can achieve long-term effectiveness when it shares unifying ideologies, commons goals or mutual interests with others. Conflict arises when they do not share any commonalities with other groups or individuals. Networks are able to distribute responsibilities for operations and able to plan for unknown factors. Those that follow a network model are able to avoid unnecessary coordination and contact allows them to deny responsibility for actions for groups or individuals that have acted on their behalf. While information technology can make networks more effective, low technology means they can avoid detection by using landlines, couriers and even