Hypotheses on Leadership Decapitation

Chapter 3 introduces the dataset created for this study and explains the measures used to assess the efficacy of leadership targeting. It develops hypotheses to answer the following questions: Does decapitation result in organizational collapse? Does decapitation have an effect upon the occurrence and frequency of terrorist attacks? Does decapitation increase or shorten a group’s life span? The following variables are examined to determine whether they are correlated with the efficacy of decapitation: position of a leader within the organization, the type of decapitation, organizational variables (size, age, or type), GDP, and regime type. Data on the survival rate of targeted and nontargeted groups is also analyzed to determine whether decapitation is an effective means by which to reduce organization’s life span.