Leaderless resistance can serve as a catalyst spurring others to move from thought to action, in effect inspiring copycats.” And in the longer term, he regards all of it as the possible harbinger of a new mode of warfare in which a lone-wolf combatants have a decisive part -- with leaderless resistance already a major factor in shaping the globalized-yet-fragmented 21st century. Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance eBook: Michael, George: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store The Violent History of White Supremacism . Lone wolf (terrorism) - Wikipedia The allegedly decentralized and leaderless structure of the Animal Liberation Front could be seen as an example of anarchistic organizing, acting in … Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a political resistance strategy in which small, independent groups (covert cells), including individuals (solo cells), challenge an established adversary such as a government.Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent disruption and civil disobedience to bombings, assassinations and other violent agitation. But they struggle with the ambiguity of leaderless resistance. [2] The non-hierarchical, decentralized organization is simple and difficult to stamp out. Similarly, in the 1980s, the concept of “Leaderless Resistance” became popular among American white supremacists, along with environmental and animal rights groups. Over the past several years, the face of terrorism has undergone substantial change. Leaderless movements may have a symbolic figurehead – living or dead. However, little is known about the individuals making them hard to track and therefore hard to prevent their terrorist acts. Historically, technological advances enhanced the disruptive potential of terrorism. Lone wolf terrorists use the wide berth of the internet to communicate and acquire materials. Members of a cell usually have little or no information about who else is working on behalf of their cause. Leaderless resistance has been employed by a wide range of movements, including animal-liberation, radical environmentalist, anti-abortion, military invasion resistance, anarchist organizations, colonialism resistance, terrorist, and hate groups. Col. Amoss died more than fifteen years ago, but during his life was a tireless opponent of communism, as well as a skilled Intelligence Officer. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Terrorism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles on terrorism, individual terrorists, incidents and related subjects on Wikipedia.If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. Nationalist terrorism is a form of terrorism motivated by nationalism.Nationalist terrorists seek to form self-determination in some form, which may range from gaining greater autonomy to establishing a completely independent, sovereign state ().Nationalist terrorists often oppose what they consider to be occupying, imperial, or otherwise illegitimate powers. Leaderless Resistance has no provisions for command, control, planning, building a broad base of political support, or for terminating violence once political objectives have been met. By design, leaderless resistance poses a challenge for law enforcement, but it also has some significant shortcomings for practitioners in terms of terrorist tradecraft. Leaderless cells lack vertical command links and so operate without hierarchical command, [1] but they have a common goal that links them to the social movement from which their ideology was learned. Terrorism and extremism are inherently social ... Leaderless resistance was originally conceived as a strategy to directly fight an oppressive government seeking to … Leaderless Resistance is a strategy in which small groups (cells) and individuals fight an entrenched power through independent acts of violence and mayhem. Anti-abortion militant terrorist group The Army of God uses "leaderless resistance" as its organizing principle. It is not a fantasy of running amok in the countryside, rather it’s a bottom-up model rooted in the Marxist class struggle. Lather, rinse, repeat. A lone wolf terrorist could be a radical right-wing activist or a jihadist. That’s wholly inaccurate; and is also one reason stand-offs and the like fail. 198-223. C This article has been rated as C-Class on the project's quality scale. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent disruption and civil disobedience to bombings, assassinations and other violent agitation. To a lesser degree and on a smaller scale, factions within the direct action anti-abortion movement have systematically applied Louis Beam’s “leaderless resistance” or “phantom cell” doctrine for a number of years. The emphasis on non-hierarchical and unstructured organisational dynamics - enshrined on the American radical right in the concept of 'leaderless resistance' (see box on p.15) - also squares well with the philosophical worldview of extreme environmentalism. Although the US government is understandably concerned about well-established and enduring terrorist organizations, there is a noticeable trend indicating the increasing prevalence of so-called lone wolf attacks by individuals and small cells with little or no connections to larger groups. The Terrorist Attack Cycle. Similarly, in the 1980s, the concept of “Leaderless Resistance” became popular among American white supremacists, along with environmental and animal rights groups. Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups (covert cells), or ... Modern-day leaderless resistance/lone-wolf terrorism has manifested itself in numerous violent mass shootings/terrorist attacks committed by the far-right. Leaderless Resistance Comes of Age ISP-211 Final Paper — Simson L. Garfinkel 1 An Introduction to Leaderless Resistance Most terrorist groups have a pyramid structure similar to a modern corporation:a leader (president), an inner circle of senior members (vice presidents), individuals who oversee tasks such as fundraising or bombing (product managers), and operatives (workers). Originally credited to Col. Ulius Amoss as a tactic to allow citizens to resist a communist takeover, the idea was popularized by white supremacist leader Louis Beam. Originally credited to Col. Ulius Amoss as a tactic to allow citizens to resist a communist takeover, the idea was popularized by white supremacist leader Louis Beam. The relative successes of their pursuit of terrorism as a means of effecting political change has come at a price, however. “Leaderless Resistance” is actually a misnomer- some equate this with “nobody’s the leader, I do what I want”, which is an excuse to evade personal and cohesive discipline. Now, it appears the white supremacist movement is following the jihadist groups' successful use of the internet for the radicalization and recruitment of lone attackers. Leaderless resistance is widely discussed among U.S. right-wing insurgents, many with ties to militant religious ideologies, and this form of underground cell structure is frequently discussed among government analysts and policymakers investigating ways to combat domestic terrorism. At this point, they begin to reorganize under a “leaderless resistance” strategy deploying small action cells and “lone wolf” terrorists, and begin rebuilding. Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a political resistance strategy in which small, independent groups (covert cells) challenge an established adversary such as a government. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent protest and civil disobedience to vandalism, terrorism, and other violent activity. Those who do commit acts of terrorism can more correctly be referred to as stray or ... Leaderless resistance cells are made up of an individual or a small group. In modern days, the media and US law enforcement agencies use the term " lone wolf " to refer to people undertaking brutal terrorism acts outside an authority structure. In all these cases, those carrying out destructive acts operate as "lone wolves" and small cells, with little or no connection to formal organizations. The concept of Leaderless Resistance was proposed by Col. Ulius Louis Amoss, who was the founder of International Service of Information Incorporated, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Lone assailants plotting attacks are thus quite vulnerable to detection as they progress through their attack cycle—but they are only vulnerable if someone is looking for them. What makes leaderless resistance so potentially dangerous is the prospect of an individual or small cell obtaining a WMD or employing innovative tactics in a particularly lethal manner. Analysis. Other phrases used to depict similar types of political violence are ‘leaderless resistance’, ‘freelance terrorism’ and ‘individual terrorism’. Counterterrorism agencies and programs are very good at targeting known groups and individuals — this is what they were designed to do. By adopting the leaderless resistance model of terrorism, we saw jihadists follow the lead of the white supremacist movement. [34] Jeffrey Kaplan, “Leaderless Resistance,” Terrorism & Political Violence 9:3 (1999): p. 87. Ultimately, Michael suggests that leaderless resistance has become the most common tactical approach of political terrorists in the West and elsewhere. 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