Centralized and Decentralized Organizations

The United States military is a classical model of central organization. The military is under the leadership of specific generals. They are very rigid and follow specific orders. There is one centralized person or headquarters and the government and military branch off from there. In a centralized organization, there’s a clear division of roles, and when you take a unit out, the organization is harmed. Knowledge and power are concentrated and working groups communicate through intermediaries (Brafman, Beckstorm). In contrast, the terrorist’s organizations are an example of a decentralized organization. A decentralized organization has no one in charge and there are no headquarters. There’s an amorphous division of roles, and if you take out a unit, the organization is unharmed. All the knowledge and power are distributed so each individual can grow on their own. The organization is flexible and self-funding. The working groups communicate with each other directly (Brafman, Beckstorm). When these two types of organizations engage in conflict, chaos erupts.

Similar to the reading selection of “The Starfish and the Spider,” when the big music industries try and crack down on the pirating, a new player comes into the scene that’s even more decentralized and more difficult to battle (Brafman, Beckstorm 24). The first principle of decentralization is that as soon as someone or something tries to curb the decentralized organization, the organization continues to grow and is more difficult to control.

This is clearly demonstrated when the U.S. military tries to fight terrorists. Each terrorists group is separate from each other. There is no central unit to fight. The terrorists have leaders all over the world each willing to step up and fight. Similar to the music industries fight against illegal downloading, each time an Internet site gets caught a new and improved version is formed. In the reading “The Starfish and the Spider,” once Kazaa was caught, KazaaLite was formed, then eDonkey and now eMule. eMule is more decentralized than anything the music business has encountered. The software is a completely open source solution (Brafman, Beckstorm 24). Similar to the terrorist organizations, once one is shut down, two more are established except these groups are even more powerful and deadly.

As we can see in the war in Iraq today, nothing is getting accomplished. Each day, hundreds of people are dying but we are not getting any closer to defeating the terrorists. They are fighting with a passion in their hearts a desire to kill whomever they come in contact with. The U.S. military is fighting for a cause we do not fully understand, while the terrorists have lived in these war zones their entire lives. The U.S. military is similar to the analogy of the spider in “The Starfish and the Spider.” If you chop off its head, which is the centralized unit, it dies. The U.S. military has a weakness when it goes against the decentralized terrorists. On the other hand, the terrorists are similar to the starfish, which have no centralized unit or head. If you cut the starfish in half, it will not die, but you will have two starfish to deal with. (Brafman, Beckstorm 31).

I think the United States government needs to stop fighting the terrorists. If we stop adding fuel to their fire, I think the terrorist organizations would shrink. This is similar to the idea of the starfish. If you leave a starfish alone, there is only one starfish but if you start playing with it and break off a leg, you now have two starfish to deal with. The more we aggravate the terrorists, the more powerful they become.