Exploring the Knowledge Nexus: India's Path in Terrorism-Driven Institutional Growth

摘要

The search for knowledge and certainty drives the evolution of large- scale institutions in modern societies. These organizations, in turn, alter and solidify the structural and political landscape of society through their search for effectiveness by expanding or competing for control of their environments. Occasionally, challenge-like terrorism-emerge to cause significant uncertainties. To reestablish preferred certainty levels, organizations reach beyond established boundaries and procedures to acquire more knowledge or control. For established institutions, the search beyond normal institutional boundaries moves them into the knowledge nexus-the information-sharing terrain between communities that may or may not be in use. For security organizations the counterterrorism (CT) knowledge nexus has been largely vacant up to now. Since 2001, however, CT has unexpectedly developed the political potential to challenge established organizational boundary paradigms. This study is a first step in a longer range, wider focused, cross-national research agenda on the extent to which the search for knowledge across civilian, intelligence, and military counterterrorism organizations may be developing an unprecedented CT knowledge nexus. Using a grounded theory approach across a large number of media and other secondary sources, this essay documents the institutional beginnings of a CT-induced knowledge nexus in a natural experiment occurring in the large-scale federal democracy of India.