Strategic Insights, Volume 5, Issue 8, November 2006. An Introduction to a Special Issue of Strategic Insights: Analyses of the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)

Abstract

During the Spring Quarter of 2006 the Department of National Security Affairs of the Naval Postgraduate School introduced a new graduate seminar entitled Modeling Terrorism: New Analytical Approaches. This course was designed to introduce the seminar students to a variety of analytic methods which could be used to organize their thinking about and approach to terrorism research. One objective of the course was to introduce the students to heuristics and techniques that would allow them to model or simulate terrorist dynamics in any number of virtual environments. The course aimed at sharpening the students analytic skills and equipping them with tools for actionable analysis to commanders and policymakers confronting questions concerning terrorism. Substantively the course focused its attention on the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (the Groupe Salafiste pour Ia Predicallon et le Combat or GSPC) a terrorist organization active in west and north Africa. This special edition of Strategic Insights presents four articles that represent products of this course and subsequent research. As will be suggested below these articles explicitly explore aspects and dynamics concerning GSPC operations financing recruitment and narratives. Before introducing these articles, however, I would first like to introduce the reader to the GSPC and set a context for the articles that follow. The GSPC organized sometime between 1996 and 1998 as an offshoot of the takfiri group Armed Islamic Group (GIA). The GSPC was ostensibly organized due to disagreement over the targeting of civilians a widespread GIA tactic the GSPC found unpalatable. Nonetheless the GSPC retained the GIA's primary objective of overthrowing the government in Algiers and installing an Islamist state. While most observers agree the GSPC's Algerian operations are in decline, the group's leadership vehemently denies this claim.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA485139

Entities

People

  • Thomas H. Johnson

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Counterterrorism
  • Dynamics
  • Education
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Information Operations
  • International Security
  • Money
  • National Security
  • North Africa
  • Political Parties
  • Psychology
  • Security
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Violence
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security
  • Systems Analysis and Design