📘 Research & Dissertation
Evolutions in Suicide Bombing
Doctoral Dissertation – CUNY Graduate Center (2023)
→ Read via CUNY Academic Works
Dr. David E. Firester’s doctoral dissertation, Evolutions in Suicide Bombing: Exploring the Relationship Between the Tactic and Its Application by Non-State Armed Groups Across Various Conflict Zones Over Time, investigates how non-state armed groups adopt and evolve suicide bombing as a tactical and strategic instrument.
The study examines temporal, geographic, and organizational variations across multiple insurgent and terrorist movements, assessing the adaptive logic behind their use of self-sacrificial violence.
This dissertation laid the foundation for his later work, Failure to Adapt: How Strategic Blindness Undermines Intelligence, Warfare, and Perception (TRAC Intelligence Press, 2025), by identifying the recurring theme of organizational learning failure — how both state and non-state actors struggle to adjust effectively in dynamic conflict environments.
From Dissertation to Book
Where Evolutions in Suicide Bombing focused on tactical adaptation among militant groups, Failure to Adapt expands the framework to encompass strategic blindness within large, bureaucratic institutions — intelligence agencies, militaries, and state governments.
This continuity between micro- and macro-level adaptation frames Dr. Firester’s research as a multi-scalar study of learning under pressure, applicable to both insurgent networks and nation-states.
Research Interests
- Intelligence Analysis and Cognitive Bias
- Terrorism and Counterterrorism
- Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
- Strategic Adaptation and Organizational Learning
- Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
- Political-Military Institutions and Failure to Learn
Related Works
- Failure to Adapt: How Strategic Blindness Undermines Intelligence, Warfare, and Perception (TRAC Intelligence Press, 2025)
View on Amazon - Evolutions in Suicide Bombing (Ph.D. Dissertation, 2023)
- Read on CUNY Academic Works
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