Terrorist Peer Review: Which Attacks Does ISIS Accept for Publication?

• In Event: Terror Group Dynamics

Abstract

ISIS propaganda plays an important role in inspiring jihadists to act independently on the group’s behalf. Propaganda also establishes targeting agendas and tactical norms for autonomous ISIS cells to follow. The editors of ISIS's publications (including Rumiyah, Dabiq, and Amaq) declare what ISIS cells should do. They also exert ex post control over which attacks are publicized in ISIS’s official media. Jihadists seek recognition by ISIS’s publications, so the prospect of “peer review” plays a role in regulating cells’ behavior. This paper considers what ISIS’s editorial standards might be. Which criteria does an attack have to meet in order to be publicized as an official ISIS action? Probit analyses of autonomous jihadist attacks in the West show that two factors, victim fatalities and martyrdom, predict “acceptance” in ISIS publications. By selectively publicizing attacks that meet these standards, ISIS editors encourage more lethal suicide attacks.

Author

• Joseph Brown, University of Massachusetts Boston