Does Killing Terrorist Leaders Make any Change?

The United States' special force killed ISIS leader (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), and the group appointed another leader within 24 hours. What does that tell us?

The modern terrorist organization runs a "mission-driven" organization, which is far stronger than the "leadership-driven" movement. The terrorists can connect and freely exchange ideas unhindered irrespective of miles and international boundaries. The new "modus operandi" made it difficult to disrupt terrorist activities just by killing their leaders. Today's terrorist organization has no clear hierarchy.

Killing the head of Al-Shabab in Somalia in 2014 by US drones has not changed anything. Of course, targeting and killing the leaders of the terrorist groups is one of the options but not an effective deterrence. Al-Qaida, ISIS, and other groups have been able to run chains of the website of which they post-ideological beliefs and messages under the toga of religion, which has directly influenced or motivated small collection of individuals scattered all over the world including the United States. Therefore, it worthy to note that the activities of the 21st-century terrorist organization are not built around leaders but mission and purpose.

The most important thing the "superpowers" and government leaders should do is to ensure they prevent radicalization by helping to deal with grievances that are spawning terrorists. For instance, Africa does not produce weapons that Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab use. The western power should hold to their promise to keep the most dangerous weapons out of terrorist hands.