al-Qaeda: Study of Decentralized Organization

Despite efforts by the U.S. an its allies to debilitate the al-Qaeda organization in the eight years since the September 11 th terrorist attacks, al-Qaeda continues to operate and poses a national security threat to the U.S. Recent research indicates that part of alQaeda’s success hinges upon the organization’s ability to function in a decentralized manner. This paper analyzes alQaeda using the principles of decentralization and discusses potential connections between their decentralization and their ability to survive in a hostile environment. It is the hope of the authors that follow-on work may provide insights into potential weaknesses of al-Qaeda as well as potential countermeasures to defense the U.S. from further terrorist attacks by the organization.