Evolutionary Narratives of Terrorism: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Red Brigades

Building upon Critical Terrorism Studies and Narrative Criminology, the study expands beyond Nikolas Tinbergen's evolutionary behavioural framework, by creating and introducing a transdisciplinary framework model of analysis structured with four questions specifically designed for analysing terrorist organisations.
This research proposes a novel approach to understanding terrorist groups by conceptualising them as metaphorical organisms, then progressing each metaphor further, employing an evolutionary lens for comprehensive transdisciplinary analysis based primarily on primary source narratives. This metaphorical approach addresses a significant gap in both criminology and terrorism research, providing a new framework for analysing terrorist groups through their narratives.
The framework proves to be a valuable analytical tool for both prospective and retrospective studies of terrorist groups, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of their development and tactics over time, via the analysis of narratives, an underexplored avenue in both criminological and terrorism research.
Using the Red Brigades as a case study, the research highlights the importance of evolutionary drives, plateaus, and underlying reasons for the purpose of analysing terrorist groups. The findings show that transdisciplinary evolutionary models can be successfully applied to terrorist groups, at a meso-level analysis.
The findings also show how, contrary to prevailing literature which argues an extremely strong evolutionary adaptability, the Red Brigades' evolutionary capability was significantly more constrained following their strong initial movements which usually crystallised after emergence.
Additionally, for further research, the analysis identifies and defines specific findings, termed Vectors of Evolutionary Change, as critical in altering the group's evolutionary trajectory — a factor overlooked in existing scholarship.