Simulating terrorist cells: Experiments and mathematical theory

Abstract

How well do mathematical models of terrorist cells apply to the reallife struggle against terrorism? Certainly, mathematical models have been useful in the past for military planning and predicting the behavior of U.S. adversaries, but how well do mathematical projections of terrorist behavior actually hold up when tested on living people and real situations? This paper first presents a mathematical model of terrorist cells and their functionality, and then discusses the procedure and results of an experiment conducted to test this model's theoretical projections by comparing them with experimental results, thus confronting the question of theory versus reality. © 2009 Springer Vienna.