The Open Jihad
28th February 2015
Over the past couple of weeks, the open jihad has taken ground in Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Iraq. It’s ongoing success is due to innovations developed by a large and growing number of contributing groups. Groups like:
- ISIS affiliated forces in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen to
- Boko Haram in Nigeria to
- ISIS and AQ affiliated terrorist groups inside Saudi Arabia, UK, Egypt, etc.
Open jihad evolves (gets better) through massively parallel co-development. All of the groups in the open jihad, no matter how small (even down to individuals), can contribute. They do this by:
- tinkering with tactics, strategies, and technologies that can be used to advance the open jihad.
- testing the efficacy of these innovations by using them against the enemy. In other words, throwing them against the wall to see what sticks.
- copying the innovations that work.
The groups in the open jihad can communicate successful innovations without even using the forms of communication we pay the NSA tens of billions a year to spy on. Instead, they communicate successful innovation through a process called stigmergy (which we do surprisingly little to analyze). I first wrote about stigmergy back in 2004. That earlier description is still valid today.