Studies on radicalization & comments

**Bob's World** · 02-21-2015

We need to appreciate the powerful effect of the identity-based populations that every person has. If a person identifies with some issue or cause, they become a member of a distributed population who also identify with that same issue. Each person is a member of literally thousands of these populations, and has their own priority for how they value these identities relative to each other.

The most important identities are those a person is willing to kill or die for. If I identify as a Sunni and prioritize identity I would reasonably see joining ISIS as a way to help preserve and advance issues critical to that identity. If I return home to perceived discrimination by my nation because i am a member of that Sunni population i have an internal crisis i must resolve. I will reasonably come to value my Sunni identity over my national identity (as most religious people of any ilk do).

This isn't voodoo magic or mass brainwashing - it is just common sense and human nature. None of that validates acts of terrorism, but when legal and less drastic approaches are either denied or ineffective in addressing the perceived grievances, people of every culture historically will ultimately act out.

**davidbfpo** · 02-22-2015

Well The White House CVE summit has set off a host of comments, Peter Bergen's piece for CNN for example:http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/19/op...ses/index.html

Indeed, New America has studied the backgrounds of some 250 U.S.-based militants since 9/11 who have been indicted in or convicted of some kind of jihadist terrorist crime. They are on average middle class, reasonably well-educated family men with kids. They are, in short, ordinary Americans....Post-9/11 research demonstrating that Islamist terrorism is mostly a pursuit of the middle class.

So if it's clearly not deprivation that is driving much Islamist terrorism, what is?

**Bob's World** · 02-22-2015

The US founders were not deprived either, but they burned at the disrespect levied against them their fellow British citizens who officially and in practice deemed Colonists inferior due merely for where they were born.

They came to not recognize the right of a distant King and his Governors the Colonists had no say in the selection of to govern them.

This is not about money or religion, this is a fundamental human nature response to injustice and disrespect. Everyone needs to stop looking for ways to fix those who are acting out against governance, and instead ask what it is about that governance that is so provocative to the identity-based populations they are emerging from.

**Bill Moore** · 02-22-2015

Originally Posted by davidbfpo

Well The White House CVE summit has set off a host of comments, Peter Bergen's piece for CNN for example:

David,

We have perpetuated this myth to the point it is widely perceived as fact. We have done this for terrorists and insurgents by cherry picking comments from selected detainees or interviews with others, while ignoring the overwhelming evidence that people for fight the reasons Bob points too.

When we deceive ourselves and develop strategies to counter so called radicalization we end up developing plans based on false assumptions.

Providing jobs may or may not be a humanitarian act (it has been demonstrated our aid programs in the past have stunted economic growth in some countries) we want to pursue, of course we seem to forget that people want jobs that provide personal satisfaction, not working for pennies a day developing a road we're paying for.

Economic development is important for a lot of reasons, but we need to stop confusing it with the sole reason people take up arms.

**davidbfpo** · 03-14-2015

Unusual report from the Lebanon:

Armed with their black veils, open ears and expertise in forensic psychology, two young Saudi-raised Lebanese sisters spend hours each week tapping deep into the lives and minds of terrorists of the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and other groups imprisoned in Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison.

Link:http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...h-prison.html?

**davidbfpo** · 04-08-2015

A provocative article, which opens with:

More than thirteen years after the U.S. intelligence community named the prevention of terrorism its number one goal, it seems to have little understanding of what drives terrorism, or how to counter it. And, if the recently increasing criticism is correct, the government’s investment in academic terrorism research isn’t helping. It may be because the government is continuing to fund research supporting discredited theories of terrorist radicalization, rather than objective empirical analyses.

Link:http://justsecurity.org/21823/flawed...rism-policies/

This is not a problem confined to the USA.

The short podcast with Arun Kundani is worth listening to.

**davidbfpo** · 04-26-2015

This week the UN Security Council held an open session on radicalisation, amidst the official and academic speakers was Scott Atran, whose work has been cited on SWC before.

Link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-...b_7142604.html