Don’t Overestimate Drone Strikes’ Power to Kill High Value Targets

Posted: September 10th, 2017

By Robert Pape

Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. He is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982.

Since 9/11, eliminating terrorist leaders through a strategy known as leadership decapitation has emerged as key pillar of the United States’ counterterrorism strategy. Although the U.S. has successfully removed numerous terrorists from the battlefield, leadership decapitation does not necessarily equate to the destruction of a terrorist organization, especially groups with ties to local populations. The Cipher Brief spoke with Robert Pape, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, about when leadership decapitation can prove effective and some of the factors that should be considered when implementing this approach.

The Cipher Brief: Is leadership decapitation, which some people refer to it as “mowing the grass” or “mowing the lawn,” an effective part of U.S. counterterrorism strategy?

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