Assassination is a form of flattery

The war nerd has a longish piece on assassination as a human resources project. Basically, assassination is your enemy deciding who should be leaving your organization, and from this viewpoint it appears useful to take out your top achievers, while leaving your deadwood and seat warmers in peace. As always, it makes for grim reading and is festooned with images of physics doing her harsh mistress-thing on the human body.

Brecher wrote his piece from the viewpoint of someone organizing assassinations. But what about the prospective victim? If you are a prime asset to your organization, the enemy HR department will send you a pink slip wrapped around a pound of plastique. If you are underperforming, your own organization will punish you - by firing you, exile or court martial. So, basically, this is what you should do as a member of any organization being targeted by this method of attack: Remain in a carefully calibrated state of mediocrity; at least as long as the two ranges of (in)competence inviting censure (from your own organization, or the assassin's) do not overlap. You are not high-profile enough to be taken out, but while you might do a meh-job for your own side, you are not bad enough to be punished.