by John W. Little. He is the creator of Blogs of War. His work and analysis have been featured in major media around the globe. The Blogs of War Twitter feed, @Blogsofwar, was selected as one of the top Twitter accounts of 2014 by Time magazine. Since 2014, he has produced the podcast series, Covert Contact (Twitter) which features national security, intelligence, and tech commentary from John and many others. The following text was published along with episode 26 of Covert Contact.
Do you know what the terrorists want? Then you should listen to the following episode of Covert Contact! Even if you don’t have any clue about the strategic aims of terrorist groups, this excellent episode could be of interest for you.
Northeastern University professor and terrorism theorist Max Abrahms (Twitter) excels at poking holes in the conventional wisdom and he joins John to do exactly that. John initially asked Max to discuss his recent piece in Harvard Business Review “Why People Keep Saying, ‘That’s What the Terrorists Want’” but they expanded the discussion to explore commonly accepted ideas about the terror group “Islamic State” (ISIS) – their supposed strategic and tactical brilliance, the viability of their so-called caliphate, and the notion that legitimate governments somehow don’t have the tools to address the problem that ISIS represents.
Listen to Covert Contact episode #26 “What You Are Getting Wrong About ISIS”
Download episode #26 – Archive: all episodes – Don’t miss any future episodes and subscribe on iTunes.
More Information
- For a more comprehensive breakdown of Max’s research and arguments on this subject: Max Abrahms, “The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited“, Comparative Political Studies 45:3, March 2012, p. 366-393.
- Other Covert Contact episodes featuring Max Abrahms: “Why Terrorism Fails: A Discussion with Max Abrahms“, Episode 16.
