Funding Mechanisms and Operational Capabilities: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Relationship Between Financial Resources and Jihadist Group Capacity

This dissertation employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design to investigate the relationship between funding mechanisms and the operational capabilities of five jihadist organizations—the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Shabaab, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), and Islamic State in the Sahel Province (ISSP)—operating across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa between 2015 and 2024. Grounded in resource mobilization theory, organizational learning theory, and the crime-terror nexus framework, the study constructed an Operational Capability Index (OCI) using principal component analysis of attack frequency, lethality, geographic reach, and tactical sophistication data drawn from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP-GED), the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). The quantitative phase analyzed 419 group-month observations through panel regression models, while the qualitative phase employed structured comparative case analysis of Financial Action Task Force reports, United Nations monitoring team assessments, and U.S. Treasury designations. Results indicated that the first principal component of the OCI explained 47.46% of total variance, confirming the multidimensional nature of operational capability. The central finding demonstrated that funding structure—specifically the degree of diversification and local embeddedness—was a stronger predictor of operational capability than funding volume alone. JNIM exhibited the strongest capability growth trajectory (slope = +0.054), driven by diversified, locally embedded revenue streams including artisanal gold mining and agricultural taxation, while ISIS experienced capability decline following the collapse of its territorial resource-extraction model. These findings yielded a novel three-tier funding-capability typology—Diversified-Embedded, State-Like Collapsed, and Constrained-Declining—that challenges the prevailing volume-centric approach to counter-terrorism financing (CTF) and offers 12 evidence-based policy recommendations for capability-targeted financial disruption strategies.