Disperse or Unite? A Mathematical Model of Coordinated Attack

Disperse or unite? A mathematical model of coordinated attack. By Joram op den Kelder Throughout the history of the western world a constant struggle has been taking place between governments and terrorist organisations. Game theory has proven helpful in enhancing our understanding of struggles between two players with opposing interests. The September 11 attacks on the USA in 2001 marked a profound strategic shift in the strategies employed: multiple bombings were carried out simultaneously by different groups with different targets. As such, the terrorist organisation responsible made the strategic decision to divide its resources between multiple targets. We study this decision-making process mathematically by introducing a new type of search game. A major part of my research on this search game was done in the spring of 2010. Accordingly, some of the results that I present here have already been published in the homonymous article [3].