Leadership

The Sabotage of MH 370

March 15, 2014

Some contextual points regarding the now admitted sabotage of Malaysian Airways Flight 370:

Some contextual points regarding the now admitted sabotage of Malaysian Airways Flight 370:

- China has experienced the second major terror attack against its citizens and transportation networks in as many weeks.

- Separatists in western China and their regional affiliates are most likely the perpetrators of both attacks.

- There will be no claim of responsibility.

- Al-qaeda never claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

- Transportation assets have always been the preferred targets of terrorist groups.

- Attacking transportation ensures large body counts and widespread global media coverage: validating the attackers credibility amongst current and potential supporters and guaranteeing a governmental response.

- The Chinese government, albeit an insular one, will now be forced to respond publicly.

- As I wrote well before 9/11, "Terrorism, if properly conducted by terrorists, generates disproportionate feels of anger, fear, and anxiety, in the population that is attacked. The bigger the attack, the more pressure on the government to do something, whether tangibly or symbolically."

- This attack is now the latest in an 80-year old story of disparate groups leveraging global air transport as the way to gain legitimacy for their cause.

- "Terrorism is the atomic bomb of the poor and disenfranchised." - Pablo Escobar

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.