RAND reprint of a Brian Jackson article that originally appeared in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism back in 2001: Technology Acquisition by Terrorist Groups: Threat Assessment Informed by Lessons from Private Sector Technology Adoption
Because of the importance of technology to the operations of modern terrorist organizations, the factors which affect the technological sophistication of extreme organizations are of great interest. In this paper, the process through which terrorist groups seek out and deploy new technology is examined by bringing to bear the deep literature which exists on technology adoption by commercial organizations. A framework is described which delineates not only the factors that influence a group’s decision-making processes surrounding new technology but also the obstacles which stand in the way of the successful absorption and use of unfamiliar technologies by a terrorist organization. This framework, by taking a holistic view of the entire technology adoption process, sets out a methodology to both more reasonably predict the outcome of a group’s technology seeking efforts and to speculate about its future innovation efforts. Such a technology-focused viewpoint provides a route to more fully inform risk assessment especially with regard to the low probability-high consequence technologies which have served as the focus of much recent counter-terrorist deliberation. The lessons provided by the framework with respect to weapons of mass destruction terrorism and to novel counter-terrorist routes are discussed.