The brothers who carried out suicide bombings in Brussels last week had long, violent criminal records and had been regarded internationally as potential terrorists. But in San Bernardino, Calif., last year, one of the attackers was a county health inspector who lived a life of apparent suburban normality. And then…
Research using social network analysis to study terrorism and insurgency has increased dramatically following the 9/11 attacks against the United States. This research emphasizes the importance of relational analysis and provides a variety of concepts, theories, and analytical tools to better understand questions related to militant group behavior and outcomes…
This article presents a case study of one individual’s trajectory through violent right-wing extremism in the USA. Drawing on an in-depth in-person interview conducted with ‘Sarah’, we trace the influences affecting the nature and extent of her involvement, engagement and disengagement. We focus on delineating the complexity of Sarah’s disengagement…
The Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda-linked groups, Boko Haram and other extremist movements are protagonists in today’s deadliest crises, complicating efforts to end them. They have exploited wars, state collapse and geopolitical upheaval in the Middle East, gained new footholds in Africa and pose an evolving threat elsewhere. Reversing their gains…
This article attempts to explain the apparent failure of Nigeria’s military action against the Boko Haram (roughly translated as ‘Western education is prohibited’) insurgency in the north-east of the country. Until the involvement of troops from Chad and Niger in January 2015, the Boko Haram insurgents were succeeding in their…
Living in a time of terror, we argue that there needs to be research on what types of people choose to join Islamist terrorist groups. We think that Eric Hoffer’s reflections on the ‘true believer’ are illuminating. His meditations on the poor, the misfit, the selfish, and the bored provide…
Since 9/11, there has been an increased interest in the use of biometric technologies as a way to counter the threat of terrorism and to protect a nation’s critical national infrastructure and infrastructure assets. Biometric features can be used to verify an individual’s identity or in the identification of an…
Why do some individuals pick up arms as opposed to others who live under the same conditions? Environmental and group theories fail to differentiate between these individuals. In response, we apply the cognitive mapping approach and model violence as decisions based on chains of beliefs about various types of factors,…
This report presents the analysis of a corpus of academic and grey literature relevant to a key challenge facing our society. How can media and communications be used to counter identity-based violence (IBV) or Violent Extremism (VE)?
In June 2014, a middle-aged woman riding a motorcycle approached the military barracks in the North Eastern Nigerian city of Gombe. While being searched at the military checkpoint, she detonated the explosives strapped to her body, ending her life and killing a soldier in the process. With this act, a…
Africa is in the thralls of a growing specter of gender-based violent extremism. The role of women in violent extremism has grown in tandem with the spiraling threat of terrorism globally. West Africa is the most affected region by terrorism and gender-based violent extremism. The region has turned to be…
EARLY LAST DECEMBER, two days after Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik murdered 14 people at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, the married couple’s landlord invited the media to tour their home. Inside the sparsely furnished town house, news crews trained their cameras on the dirty dishes that filled…
