Why is Islamic State (IS) so effective at recruitment, especially in the online realm? Recent discussions glean some insights for the Singapore and Southeast Asia context.

Authorities are increasingly worried about the large number of Western foreign fighters present in Syria. However, the conflict in Syria is not the first to attract foreign fighters. In this Background Note, Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Prof. Dr. Edwin Bakker investigate three historical cases of foreign fighting: Afghanistan…

Paul Wilkinson Memorial Lecture, University of St. Andrews, 16 April 2015.

Buku yang ada di tangan Anda ini merupakan panduan bagi jurnalis radio pemula, baik yang berperan sebagai penyiar, reporter berita, presenter talk show, maupun produser pro­ gram radio. Disusun dalam bentuk buku saku yang meng­ hindari hal-hal yang bersifat teore s dengan uraian panjang dan dike­ mas dengan bahasa yang…

Though violent extremism has recently begun to receive increased scrutiny, less attention has been paid to understanding how non-ideological factors influence the process of joining an extremist group and the onset of committing violent crimes. Violent extremism involves a variety of pathways and manifests itself along a broad continuum. Although…

As the 2015 general elections in Nigeria neared, the security situation in the country’s northeastern region became a political pawn to boost the respective party platforms. The candidates praised and criticised the national response to the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which has grown to a transnational threat with a…

Testing social movement theory positing that radical organizations are ideologically driven at their core, but are supported by civilians who are driven by social factors, this research interrogates the disparity between radical group ideology and supporter belief set in the context of present-day Nigeria. Content analysis of randomly selected Boko…

The threat of Islamist radicalism in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia has been a topic of debate among the analyst community for many years, especially following the 9/11 attacks in the United States. In recent months, interest in the topic has surged again, in part because Russia and…

In the global fight against violent extremism, a major element has been missing from the conversation that has focused on mostly top-down, official efforts: how ordinary citizens and communities are successfully challenging the acute corruption that drives young people and others into the folds of radicals.Imagine growing up in a…

Editor’s Note: The latest attacks in Europe and the risk of terrorism from lone wolves and returned foreign fighters have led to an increased focus on preventing terrorism by stopping radicalization in the first place. Such a focus is good in theory, but in practice governments don’t do it well….

“He would have kept my house for himself if it wasn’t for the Taliban. They were quick and fair.” Thus did a resident of Kandahar, Afghanistan, recently describe Taliban justice to the New York Times. Such words sound jarring to Western ears. Taliban courts may be called quick and brutal…

TERRORISM is increasing. According to the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland, groups connected with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State committed close to 200 attacks per year between 2007 and 2010, a number that grew by more than 200 percent, to about 600 attacks, in 2013. Since…