| Summary/Abstract |
In pursuit of universal models and readily observable indicators, existing accounts of terrorists’ weapons adoption have privileged environmental and group-based characteristics at the expense of appreciating the fundamental, albeit sometimes idiosyncratic, role played by individuals in the weapons innovation process. This article develops in three stages an individual-centric approach to examining terrorist groups’ weapons adoption in empirical and theoretical models: first, a critical review of existing terrorist weapons adoption and innovation literature, organized into three levels of analysis—the situational, the organizational, and the individual; second, a theoretical argument—drawing on organizational learning and knowledge transfer theory—that posits individual expertise as a crucial underlying factor in terrorists’ weapons adoption; and third, a stylized case study of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)’s weapons use trends as a demonstration of the argument’s practical utility in today’s security environment. The article concludes with insights for continued scholarly inquiry into terrorist groups’ weapons adoption.
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