This book focusses on the interaction between different kinds of violence and radicalization. Current research criticizes linear models of radicalization and assumes that individuals are involved in radical actions even without extremist preferences. In recent years, the research on radicalization and the use of violence has increasingly been focused on this phenomenon of individual radicalization. However, radicalization is a manifold phenomenon on various levels and exists in miscellaneous variations. The book provides an impetus for analysing social situations that contain the potential for the emergence of conflict. This is done through new outlooks on the role of emotions, the influence of narratives and representations, the connection between (non)violence and emancipation and, lastly, new approaches and perspectives on deradicalization.

Based on rare field research with terrorists, this ground breaking book delineates the drivers of radicalization and develops a deradicalization model to mitigate contemporary terrorism. Radicalization arises from individuals' needs, ideological narratives, and support networks. Individuals' need for significance and mattering, when conjoined to a narrative that advocates violence as a path to significance and a network that socially validates the narrative, creates a combustible psychological mixture that threatens social stability and global peace.

Terrorism and radicalization have a long history, but in recent years their prominence has been a particularly conspicuous and influential feature of the global political landscape. This important book presents an overview of the processes involved in radicalization and terrorism, and introduces a systematic framework which captures the most crucial individual and social factors involved in determining these processes. The authors begin by considering the possible role of prejudice, economic deprivation, and discrimination, and the cognitive responses and emotions they can trigger. Such responses tend in turn to increase the importance of group membership, and promote intergroup differentiation and polarization, a process which is often accompanied by more pronounced and more extreme religious and ideological beliefs. The book also describes the role of cultural values and social climate in processes of radicalization, as well as the role of personality factors and demographics such as age and marital status. As for violent terrorist action itself, this final most radical stage is elicited by a number of group factors such as groupthink, isolation, and leadership. Certain cognitive mechanisms – for example, dehumanizing the target and attributing responsibility elsewhere – can also provide excuses for violence. The book explores why some groups turn to violence and others don’t, and it addresses processes of disengagement, deradicalization programs, and other methods used to inhibit the spread of radicalization and terrorism. The Psychology of Radicalization and Terrorism takes a unique and systematic approach to a vital topic, integrating knowledge from diverse literatures, and using social psychology as a basis for comprehending human behaviour. It will be essential reading for students and researchers from all disciplines seeking a greater understanding of terrorism and violent political conflict in all its forms.

In the wake of the Paris, Beirut, and San Bernardino terrorist attacks, fears over “homegrown terrorism” have surfaced to a degree not seen since September 11, 2001—especially following the news that all of the perpetrators in Paris were European citizens. A sought-after commentator in France and a widely respected international scholar of radical Islam, Farhad Khosrokhavar has spent years studying the path towards radicalization, focusing particularly on the key role of prisons—based on interviews with dozens of Islamic radicals—as incubators of a particular brand of outrage that has yielded so many attacks over the past decade. Khosrokhavar argues that the root problem of radicalization is not a particular ideology but rather a set of steps that young men and women follow, steps he distills clearly in this deeply researched account, one that spans both Europe and the United States. With insights that apply equally to far-right terrorists and Islamic radicals, Khosrokhavar argues that our security-focused solutions are pruning the branches rather than attacking the roots—which lie in the breakdown of social institutions, the expansion of prisons, and the rise of joblessness, which create disaffected communities with a sharp sense of grievance against the mainstream.

Terrorism and ideologically inspired violence are persistent and serious threats to U.S. national security. This report uses interviews to explore why and how 32 individuals joined extremist organizations and how some of them exited these groups.

This book brings together research that covers perspectives and case studies on terrorism, radicalisation and countering violent extremism (CVE). Written by experts involved in these issues at the grassroots, the book bridges the academic-practitioner gap in the field. The proliferation of academic studies and conferences devoted to these subjects has meant that policymakers and practitioners in the same fields sometimes struggle to digest the sheer volume of academic output. The same critical questions keep coming up, but it is debatable the level to which there have been tangible improvements to our real state of knowledge: knowledge in especially in terms of what “best practices” exist in the field (and what can be translated, versus what approaches remain context and location specific). Written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners, and policymakers in the field, this volume comprises edited versions of papers presented at CVE workshops run by the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2016 and 2017.

While the themes of radicalization and Islamophobia have been broadly addressed by academia, to date there has been little investigation of the crosspollination between the two. Is Islamophobia a significant catalyst or influence on radicalization and recruitment? How do radicalization and Islamophobia interact, operate, feed one another, and ultimately pull societies toward polar extremes in domestic and foreign policy? The wide-ranging and global contributions collected here explore these questions through perspectives grounded in sociology, political theory, psychology, and religion. The volume provides an urgently needed and timely examination of the root causes of both radicalization and Islamophobia; the cultural construction and consumption of radical and Islamophobic discourses; the local and global contexts that fertilize these extreme stances; and, finally, the everyday Muslim in the shadow of these opposing but equally vociferous forces.