The Effects of Decapitation Strikes Against Terrorist Leadership

Targeted, lethal strikes against terrorist leaders have become a common approach utilized by nations to combat the terror threat in the post-9/11 counterterrorism environment. Such strikes are commonly referred to as “decapitation strikes,” as they remove the “head” of an organization with the intention of degrading/dismantling the organization’s leadership structure (this paper will use the term throughout).

Effects of Space Weather

The term “space weather” encompasses a variety of phenomena. Space weather, unlike terrestrial weather on Earth, is concerned with varying conditions in the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. It observes and studies the fluctuations in the space environment between the sun and Earth.