Leaderless resistance

Leaderless resistance, as introduced in American right-wing extremism by Louis Beam, is the idea of violence against government or other targets (e.g., ethnic or religious groups) by individuals or very small groups, such that there is little structure for law enforcement or intelligence organizations to detect. The basic principle exists in other extremist philosophies; self-radicalization is a growing term for radical Islamism, and al-Qaeda's "franchise" method of encouraging but not controlling operational groups also has a similarity.

Within U.S. right-wing extremism, the term "lone wolf" is also used. It applied especially well to Eric Rudolph, who apparently acted alone in bombing abortion clinics and the Atlanta Olympics, although he was personally but not operationally known to groups of similar ideology. It can reasonably apply to very small groups such as Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing.