PICT110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Extremism, New York City Police Department, Action Action
23 May 2018
School
Course
Professor
Week 11 (21/5) – Radicalisation, terrorism, violent
extremism
Part 1: Terrorism – the basics
TERROR, PANIC, FEAR
- The oots of the od teois oe fo the Feh old teoise ad
referred to the acts of the post-revolutionary French government in 1793-4 that saw
1000s of individuals executed at the guillotine for crimes against the revolution.
- Terrorism itself is ooted i the Lati od teee → fighte o tele
VIOLENT EXTREMISM
RADICALISATION
- Questions to ask when we talk about countering radicalisation
1. What are we seeking to stop?
2. What are we seeking to prevent?
3. What are we seeking to change?
- Radicalisation alone does not necessarily imply action → action does not necessarily
imply radicalisation
- Little evidence suggests the two are always correlated even when violence is
perpetuated within the context of a terrorist narrative/ideology
- Thus, radicalisation can be violent OR non-violent
- Non-Violent: ...the soial ad pshologial poess of ieetall epeieed
commitment to extremist political or religious ideology. Radicalization may not
necessarily lead to violence but is oe of seeal isk fatos euied fo this.
(John Horgan 2010:279)
- Violent Radicalisation: …the soial ad pshologial poess of ieased ad
focused radicalization through involvement with a violent non-state movement.
Violent radicalization encompasses the phases of a) becoming involved with a
terrorist group and b) remaining involved and engaging in terrorist activity; it
involves a process of pre-involvement searching for the opportunity to engage in
violence and the exploration of competing alternatives; the individual must have
both the opportunity for engagement as well as the capacity to make a decision
aout egageet
(John Horgan 2010:279)
Part 2: Conceptual tensions
- Theoetial tesios aoud ithi the liteatue o adialisatio
- Peter Nuemann identifies the conceptual conflict between those seeking to
differentiate between two dimensions:
o Cognitive radicalisation → focus on beliefs/ religion/ ideology
o Behavioural radicalisation → focus on actions motivated by structural and/or
psychological dynamics
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Explanation
Critique
Cognitive
- Most influential study is the
NYP Ds jihadi-Salafi
adializatio stud daig o
work of Siber & Bhatt 2007
- Suggests that citizens of
western countries adopt
extremist ideology (in this case
salafi-jihadism) through a linear
four stage process that aligns
with model used by Siber &
Bhatt in work done for FBI
- Significant ramifications
particularly in relation to
surveillance of Muslim
communities
1. Pre-radicalisation → 2. self-
identification → 3.
indoctrination → 4. jihadization
- Conflation of radical ideologies with
violent extremism
- No evidence to indicate ideologies
alone are enough to generate
radicalisation process
- Cognitive focused studies such as the
NYPD model can alienate communities
and indivduals and ultimately far too
simplistic to capture
structural/psychological complexity
- Boou otes a teoists – even
those who lay claim to a ause ae ot
deeply ideological and may not
adialize i a taditioal
sense…soe teoists – perhaps even
many of them – are not ideologues or
deep believers in a nuanced, extremist
doctrine (2011:2)
Behavioural
- Focuses on behaviour of
extremists as opposed to the
adoption of extremist ideas and
beliefs
- These scholars focus on
structural and psychological
dimensions to explain why
individuals engage in violence
as opposed to eoe adial
- Focus is on the decisions made
to act and engage in violent
extremism rather than on the
beliefs, ideologies and views
espoused by terrorists and
terrorist organizations
- “ageas ok 8 o etoks is
ofte efeed to as as the uh of
gus theory of radicalisation
- Militants are drawn from clusters of
oug e hasig thills, fatasies of
glory, and sense of belonging to group
ad ause oilised though soial
networks. These networks often share a
sense of global or local moral outrage
and grievous personal experiences and
driven more by Anti-American or Anti-
Semitic sentiment than religion
- Wiktorowicz (2005) draws on the work
of Sageman but in addition to social
networks adds an additional important
dimension – the cognitive opening. This
is a psychological crisis experienced by
the individual that essentially triggers
their engagement in and with violent
extremism
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 11 (21/5) radicalisation, terrorism, violent extremism. The (cid:396)oots of the (cid:449)o(cid:396)d (cid:858)te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)is(cid:373)(cid:859) (cid:272)o(cid:373)e f(cid:396)o(cid:373) the f(cid:396)e(cid:374)(cid:272)h (cid:449)o(cid:396)ld (cid:858)te(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:396)is(cid:373)e(cid:859) a(cid:374)d referred to the acts of the post-revolutionary french government in 1793-4 that saw. 1000s of individuals executed at the guillotine for crimes against the revolution. Terrorism itself is (cid:396)ooted i(cid:374) the lati(cid:374) (cid:449)o(cid:396)d (cid:858)te(cid:396)(cid:396)e(cid:396)e(cid:859) (cid:858)f(cid:396)ighte(cid:374)(cid:859) o(cid:396) (cid:858)t(cid:396)e(cid:373)(cid:271)le(cid:859) Radicalisation alone does not necessarily imply action action does not necessarily imply radicalisation. Little evidence suggests the two are always correlated even when violence is perpetuated within the context of a terrorist narrative/ideology. Thus, radicalisation can be violent or non-violent. Non-violent: (cid:862)the so(cid:272)ial a(cid:374)d ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al p(cid:396)o(cid:272)ess of i(cid:374)(cid:272)(cid:396)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)tall(cid:455) e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)ed commitment to extremist political or religious ideology. Radicalization may not necessarily lead to violence but is o(cid:374)e of se(cid:448)e(cid:396)al (cid:396)isk fa(cid:272)to(cid:396)s (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)ed fo(cid:396) this. (cid:863) (john horgan 2010:279) Violent radicalisation: (cid:862) the so(cid:272)ial a(cid:374)d ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al p(cid:396)o(cid:272)ess of i(cid:374)(cid:272)(cid:396)eased a(cid:374)d focused radicalization through involvement with a violent non-state movement.
