About

Jenna Jordan is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, her M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University, and her B.A. in International Relations from Mills College. Her academic background includes a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on terrorism and political violence, international security, cybersecurity, wargaming, organizational theory, leadership, and statecraft. She has authored the book 'Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Targeting of Terrorist Organizations,' which evaluates the efficacy of leadership targeting as a counterterrorism strategy. Her work has been published in numerous academic journals and major media outlets, and she serves on the editorial board of the Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict. Her research has been supported by grants from various institutions including the University of Chicago, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Political economy
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Nuclear scientists have long been targets in covert ops – Israel has brought that policy out of the shadows

  2025-06-19

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• The Non-Trivial Accomplishments of Counterterrorists

  Security Studies · 2024

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  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Political economy
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• Leadership Decapitation

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020

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  • Psychology
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• Is Leadership Targeting Effective?

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26

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  The chapter begins by looking at trends in leadership targeting. It then examines the impact of decapitation on organizational activity, organizational existence, attack frequency, and organizational survival. The data shows that organizational size, type, and leadership rank all have an impact on the probability that a group will experience a cessation of organizational activity after leadership decapitation. Large, religious, separatist, and Islamist groups are resilient to decapitation efforts and likely to continue carrying out activity. Targeting the top leader as opposed to members of the upper echelon is more likely to result in a cessation of activity, and groups in countries with a larger population are more likely to withstand leadership attacks. The chapter concludes with an overall assessment of the theoretical implications and policy recommendations regarding the efficacy of leadership targeting.

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• Hypotheses on Leadership Decapitation

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26

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  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.

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• Leadership Decapitation

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26 · 2 citations

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  Does leadership targeting work? This question lies at the heart of studies on the efficacy of counterterrorism policy. This book examines whether killing or arresting terrorists is an effective means by which to weaken and degrade a group’s operational capacity. It aims to identify and explain why decapitation works in some cases and not in others. In order to determine whether decapitation is an effective strategy, this project examines nearly one thousand instances of leadership targeting. A group’s susceptibility to leadership targeting is a function of three factors: organizational structure, communal support, and group type or ideology. Leadership decapitation is unlikely to result in the demise of groups that are highly bureaucratized, have high levels of communal support, or are driven by a religious or separatist ideology. Leaders matter less under these conditions, and their removal can have adverse consequences, such as retaliatory attacks or an overall increase in the frequency of attacks. The data reveals that the largest and oldest organizations are highly resistant to destabilization after targeting. Separatist, religious, and especially Islamist groups are unlikely to weaken after the removal of their leaders. In order to develop counterterrorism policies that will degrade and weaken terrorist organizations, it is essential to identify whether our policies are likely to be effective or to have adverse consequences. The book examines the cases of Hamas, al-Qaeda, Shining Path, and ISIS to understand how organizational structure, local support, and ideology contributes to their resilience in the face of repeated leadership attacks.

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• Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Targeting of Terrorist Organizations

  2019-11-12 · 9 citations

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• Al-Qaeda

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26

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  Chapter 7 looks at the impact that decapitation attacks have had upon the operational capacity and organizational strength of al-Qaeda Central and al-Qaeda as a whole.

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• Introduction

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26

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  Leadership decapitation, which refers to the arrest or killing of a group’s leadership, has become a key tool in current counterterrorism strategies This chapter presents an overview of the debate about leadership decapitation against terrorist organizations. Much of the optimism regarding the efficacy of decapitation as a counterterrorism strategy stems from the belief that terrorist groups depend upon the charisma of leaders for their cohesion. In order to understand whether decapitation works, this chapter presents three questions that will be answered in the book: (1) Under what conditions does leadership decapitation result in the decline of a terrorist organization? (2) Does leadership decapitation lengthen or shorten a group’s life span? (3) In cases where decapitation does not result in a group’s collapse, to what extent does it weaken a group and hinder its capacity to carry out attacks?

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• Hamas

  Stanford University Press eBooks · 2019-11-26

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  Chapter 5 examines Israeli attempts to capture or kill Hamas leaders from 1988 to 2014. It first looks at changes in the frequency and lethality of both conventional and suicide attacks in order to determine whether leadership targeting has affected Hamas’s operational capacity. Hamas’s bureaucratic hierarchy has increased its organizational stability and ability to withstand leadership attacks. The high degree of Palestinian support for Hamas has increased not only its strength and resilience to decapitation but also its legitimacy. The data shows that Palestinian support has increased over time, making Hamas even more resilient to leadership attacks. Finally, ideology is a critical factor. Hamas is both a separatist and a religious organization, which also plays a role in its ability to withstand repeated attacks on its leadership.

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Frequent coauthors

• John D. Hogan

  Boston University

  8 shared

• David C. Devonis

  Elms College

  8 shared

• John F. Kelley

  Sheffield Hallam University

  5 shared

• Duane M. Rumbaugh

  Georgia State University

  4 shared

• Thomas Teo

  York University

  4 shared

• Ludy T. Benjamin

  4 shared

• Michael M. Denunzio

  4 shared

• William A. Hillix

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Morris Abrams Award in International Relations
• World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship, Smith Richardson F…
• Intelligence Studies Section Student Paper Award
• CTL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
• Ivan Allen College Teacher of the Year