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((Short description|Military strategy))
'''Decapitation''' is a [[military strategy]] aimed at removing the leadership or [[command and control]] of a hostile government or group.<ref>((cite book|last=Wittmann|first=Anna M.|title=Talking Conflict: The Loaded Language of Genocide, Political Violence, Terrorism, and Warfare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lm91DQAAQBAJ&q=Decapitation+strike&pg=PA92|page=92|date=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=978-1-4408-3424-0))</ref><ref>((Cite journal |last1=Blair |first1=Christopher W. |last2=Horowitz |first2=Michael C. |last3=Potter |first3=Philip B. K. |date=2022 |title=Leadership Targeting and Militant Alliance Breakdown |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/715604 |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=923–943 |doi=10.1086/715604 |s2cid=236227864 |issn=0022-3816))</ref> The strategy of shattering or defeating an enemy by eliminating its military and political leadership has long been utilized in warfare.

== Genocide ==
*The [[Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915|deportation of Armenian intellectuals]] in 1915, considered the start of the [[Armenian genocide]]<ref>((cite book|last=Blinka|first=David S.|title=Re-creating Armenia: America and the memory of the Armenian genocide|date=2008|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison|page=31|quote=In what scholars commonly refer to as the decapitation strike on April 24, 1915...))</ref>
*[[German AB-Aktion in Poland]] by the [[Nazi]]s during World War II<ref>((Cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/poland-holocaust-death-camps/552455/ |title = The Truth About Poland's Role in the Holocaust|website = [[The Atlantic]]|date = 6 February 2018))</ref>
*The [[Katyn massacre]] by the [[Soviet Union]] against Polish military officers. As Polish law required every university graduate to be a reserve officer, executing the officers among the Polish [[Prisoner of war|POW]]s allowed [[Lavrentiy Beria]] to stunt Polish science, culture and leadership.((Cn|date=February 2024))

== In nuclear warfare ==
((More citations needed section|date=February 2024)) 
In [[nuclear warfare]] theory, a decapitation strike is a [[Pre-emptive nuclear strike|pre-emptive first strike]] attack that aims to destabilize an opponent's military and civil leadership structure<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=B9LhgC4g-QEC "Words of Intelligence: An Intelligence Professional's Lexicon for Domestic and Foreign Threats"], Jan Goldman. Scarecrow Press, Jun 16, 2011. ((ISBN|0-8108-7814-3)), ((ISBN|978-0-8108-7814-3))</ref> in the hope that it will severely degrade or destroy its capacity for [[second strike|nuclear retaliation]]. It is essentially a subset of a [[counterforce strike]] but whereas a counterforce strike seeks to destroy weapons directly, a decapitation strike is designed to remove an enemy's ability to use its weapons.

Strategies against decapitation strikes include the following:
* Distributed command and control structures.
* Dispersal of political leadership and military leadership in times of tension.
* Delegation of [[ICBM]]/[[SLBM]] launch capability to local commanders in the event of a decapitation strike.<ref>((Cite web |url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/predelegation/predel.htm |title=Documents on Predelegation of Authority for Nuclear Weapons Use |access-date=2015-05-17 |archive-date=2020-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218215438/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//news/predelegation/predel.htm |url-status=dead ))</ref>
* Distributed and diverse launch mechanisms.

A failed decapitation strike carries the risk of immediate, [[massive retaliation]] by the targeted opponent. Many countries with nuclear weapons specifically plan to prevent decapitation strikes by employing [[second-strike]] capabilities. Such countries may have mobile land-based launch, sea launch, air launch, and underground ballistic missile launch facilities so that a nuclear attack on one area of the country will not totally negate its ability to retaliate.

Other nuclear warfare doctrines explicitly exclude decapitation strikes on the basis that it is better to preserve the adversary's command and control structures so that a single authority remains that is capable of negotiating a [[surrender (military)|surrender]] or [[ceasefire]]. Implementing [[fail-deadly]] mechanisms can be a way to deter decapitation strikes and respond to successful decapitation strikes.

== Conventional warfare, assassination and terrorist acts ==
((More citations needed section|date=February 2024)) 
Decapitation strikes have been employed in as a strategy in [[conventional warfare]]. The term has been used to describe the [[assassination]] of a government's entire leadership group or a nation's [[Regicide|royal family]].
*[[Assassination attempts on Volodymyr Zelenskyy]]
*The [[2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq]] began with a decapitation strike against [[Saddam Hussein]] and other Iraqi military and political leaders.<ref name = "FoxDecapitation">((cite web |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/03/20/us-launches-decapitation-strike-against-iraq-saddam-personally-targeted/ |title=U.S. Launches 'Decapitation' Strike Against Iraq; Saddam Personally Targeted| date=20 March 2003 |publisher=[[Fox News|Fox News Channel]] | access-date=9 September 2013))</ref><ref name = "CNNDecapitation">((cite web |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/20/sprj.irq.int.main/ |title=Cruise missiles target Saddam| date=20 March 2003 |publisher=[[CNN]] | access-date=9 September 2013))</ref> These [[air strike]]s failed to kill their intended targets.<ref name = "NYTFail">((cite web |url=http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20040613/news_1n13strikes.html |title=Airstrikes on Iraqi leaders 'abject failure'| date=13 June 2004 |publisher=New York Times News Service | access-date=27 August 2017))</ref>
*The U.S. and its  [[NATO|NATO allies]] have, and continue to pursue this strategy in its efforts to dismantle militant [[Islamic fundamentalism|Islamic fundamentalist]] networks, such as [[Al-Qaeda]] and [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIL]], that threaten the United States and allies.<ref>((cite web|last1=Shinkman|first1=Paul D.|title=Obama: 'Global War on Terror' Is Over|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/23/obama-global-war-on-terror-is-over|publisher=U.S. News & World Report|access-date=April 4, 2017))</ref>
*April 14, 1865: The [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassination]] of U.S. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] by [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] sympathizer [[John Wilkes Booth]] was part of a larger plot to disrupt the [[United States presidential line of succession|presidential line of succession]] by also killing then-Vice President [[Andrew Johnson]], and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[William H. Seward]], at the close of the [[American Civil War]]
*February 1, 1908: King [[Carlos I of Portugal]] was [[Lisbon Regicide|assassinated]] along with his son the Crown Prince [[Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal|Luís Filipe]] by [[Alfredo Luís da Costa]] and [[Manuel Buiça]], both connected to the [[Carbonária]] (the Portuguese section of the [[Carbonari]])
*July 17, 1918: Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]] and the Imperial Family were [[Shooting of the Romanov family|executed]] by a [[Bolshevik]] firing squad under the command of [[Yakov Yurovsky]]
*November 9, 1939: Attempt on German Führer [[Adolf Hitler]]'s life in the [[Burgerbräukeller]] in [[Munich]] by Swabian carpenter [[Georg Elser]], using a [[time bomb]] in order to cripple the Third Reich and its war effort. Several died, but Hitler escaped due to a change in schedule, leaving the rostrum 13 minutes before detonation.
*July 20, 1944: [[Claus von Stauffenberg]] attempted to [[20 July plot|assassinate]] Hitler and his inner circle of advisers by a suitcase bomb as part of a broader military coup d'état against the [[Government of Nazi Germany|Nazi government]], which ultimately failed.
*Yemen 1948 [[Alwaziri coup]].

In recent warfare, [[unmanned aerial vehicles]], or drones, are popularly used for decapitation strikes against terrorist and insurgent groups. Drones are most effective in areas with inadequate air defense. There are mixed scholarly opinions whether or not decapitation strikes via drones effectively degrade the capabilities of these groups.<ref>((cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032725|doi-access=free|title=Do Emerging Military Technologies Matter for International Politics?|year=2020|last1=Horowitz|first1=Michael C.|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=23|pages=385–400))</ref>

Some military strategists, like [[General Michael Flynn]], have argued that the experience gained by the American and [[International Security Assistance Force|Coalition]] military experience from fighting the [[Taliban insurgency]] in Afghanistan was in support of kill or capture operations, but that they would be ineffective without a full understanding of how they would affect the local political landscape in the country.<ref>((Cite book|last=Coll|first=Steve|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1049576269|title=Directorate S : the C.I.A. and America's secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan|date=2018|isbn=978-1-59420-458-6|location=New York|pages=437–440|oclc=1049576269))</ref>

[[Robert Pape]] has argued that decapitation is a relatively ineffective strategy. He writes that decapitation is a seductive strategy as it promises "to solve conflicts quickly and cheaply with... little collateral damage, and minimal or no friendly casualties", but decapitation strikes frequently fail or are not likely to produce the intended consequences even if successful.<ref>((Cite book|last=Pape|first=Robert A.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1287f6v|title=Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War|date=1996|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-3134-0|pages=253|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt1287f6v))</ref>

Counterterrorism theorists [[Max Abrahms]] and Jochen Mierau argue that leadership decapitation in a terrorist or rebel group has the tendency to create disorder within the group, but  find decapitation ineffective because group disorder can often lead to politically ineffective, unfocused attacks on civilians. The two conclude that "[t]his change in the internal composition of militant groups may affect the quality and hence selectivity of their violence."  <ref>((Cite journal|last1=Abrahms|first1=Max|last2=Mierau|first2=Jochen|date=2017-09-03|title=Leadership Matters: The Effects of Targeted Killings on Militant Group Tactics|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2015.1069671|journal=Terrorism and Political Violence|volume=29|issue=5|pages=830–851|doi=10.1080/09546553.2015.1069671|s2cid=146507596|issn=0954-6553))</ref>

One tactic that is sometimes used to inform the target selection for decapitation strikes is [[social network analysis]]. This tactic involves identifying and eliminating higher ranked members in a hierarchically arranged rebel or terrorist group by targeting lower members first, and using intel gained in initial strikes to identify an organization's leadership. Some strategists, like Generals [[David Petraeus]] and [[Stanley A. McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]], have also called for dedicated task units that are non-hierarchical and can be reorganized, in order to face similar distributed or decentralized terrorist groups.<ref>((Cite journal|last=Knoke|first=David|date=2013|title="It Takes a Network": The Rise and Fall of Social Network Analysis in U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Doctrine.|journal=Connections|volume=33|pages=2–10|citeseerx=10.1.1.431.3800))</ref>  Others, however, argue that decapitation strikes combined with social network analysis are more than unproductive, but can prolong a conflict due to their habit of eliminating rebel or terrorist leaders who are the most capable peace negotiators or have the potential to advance communities hardest hit by terror campaigns after the cessation of hostilities.<ref>((Cite journal|last=Wilner|first=Alex S.|date=2010-03-15|title=Targeted Killings in Afghanistan: Measuring Coercion and Deterrence in Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576100903582543|journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism|language=en|volume=33|issue=4|pages=307–329|doi=10.1080/10576100903582543|s2cid=109972592|issn=1057-610X))</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Continuity of government]]
* [[Designated survivor]]
* [[Preemptive war]]
* [[Preventive war]]
* [[Samson Option]]
* [[Targeted killing]]
* [[List of military strategies and concepts]]
* [[List of military tactics]]
* [[Operation Looking Glass]]
* [[Burr dilemma]] - a kind of "decapitation" in party politics.

==References==
((Reflist))

[[Category:Assassinations]]
[[Category:Military strategy]]
[[Category:Continuity of government]]
[[Category:Military leadership]]

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