Understanding Political Radicalization: The Two-Pyramids Model
TL;DR: This article reviews some of the milestones of thinking about political radicalization, as scholars and security officials struggled after 9/11 to discern the precursors of terrorist violence.
Abstract: This article reviews some of the milestones of thinking about political radicalization, as scholars and security officials struggled after 9/11 to discern the precursors of terrorist violence. Recent criticism of the concept of radicalization has been recognized, leading to a 2-pyramids model that responds to the criticism by separating radicalization of opinion from radicalization of action. Security and research implications of the 2-pyramids model are briefly described, ending with a call for more attention to emotional experience in understanding both radicalization of opinion and radicalization of action. (PsycINFO Database Record
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592 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Afary discusses the complexity of sexual politics across 200 years of Iranian history, and presents a new take on its surprising, and mixed, record of political and sexual politics.
Abstract: Virtually every academic in the United States, not to mention the reading public, knows too little about Iran (the fact that this is even truer for Iraq explains part of the reasons for that catastrophe). And I would recommend this book to every academic in the United States, especially in the social sciences and humanities. As someone who has undertaken a 500-year history of social change in Iran, who sees social movements through the prism of race, class, and gender, it was eye-opening to encounter so much that I did not know about the country. ‘‘Sexual politics’’ refers in this book to at least three things: (1) the struggle for women’s equality with men, (2) the struggle for gay and lesbian rights, and (3) the relationship of gender to social movements, cultural freedoms, and, in the case of Iran, revolutions. Janet Afary’s accomplishment is to document painstakingly the complexity of sexual politics across 200 years of Iranian history, and to present us with a new take on its surprising, and mixed, record. The author ultimately makes the case that sexual politics is intimately (as it were) connected to politics tout court. She goes far beyond the existing literature (some of it very good indeed) on ‘‘gender and Iran,’’ which has focused till now predominantly on women and almost exclusively on heterosexual matters. As befits a superb historian of Iran—her first book was a history of the 1905–11 Constitutional Revolution—she digs deeply and creatively into the archives for primary materials of all kinds and combs an extensive secondary literature in several languages. As an accomplished theorist who has coauthored with Kevin Anderson a wonderful book, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, she forges a highly original theoretical and conceptual interpretation of this material at the same time, on a scaffolding that includes Foucault’s ‘‘ethics of love;’’ James Scott’s ‘‘hidden transcripts’’; psychoanalytic insights from Freud, Fromm, and Marcuse; and a command of both Western and Third World feminist theory from Simone de Beauvoir to Chandra Mohanty, Deniz Kandiyoti to Minoo Moallem. The book is further graced with 80 valuable illustrations, including seventeenthcentury paintings showing homoerotic scenes, nineteenth-century black-and-white photos and sketches from the shah’s harem and other sites, political cartoons from the Constitutional Revolution of 1905 through the turmoil of the 2000s, images from women’s magazines of the last 40 years, political posters and photographs of women’s participation in the Iranian Revolution and after, and portraits of many of the key players on all sides of sexual politics in Iran. The 16-page introduction, which presents the issues and previews the main characteristics of the last two centuries, is alone worth the price of the book. Although the book’s title tells us that it is a study of sexual politics in modern Iran, we are treated in Part One to 100 pages of deep background on ‘‘Premodern Practices,’’ which sensibly provide a baseline for the developments of the past century. These pages focus on nineteenthcentury patterns, meanings, and practices around marriage (including love and divorce), sexuality, law, religion, and resistance in its many guises. A turning point occurs during the authoritarian modernizing reign of Reza Shah, who seized power in a 1921 coup abetted by the British, had himself crowned king in 1925, and thereby started the Pahlavi dynasty. This would consist of himself until 1941, and his son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (known to us simply as ‘‘the Shah’’) who would be deposed and see the monarchy itself abolished in the course of the 1978–89 revolution. In these chapters, Afary continues to cover all the topics above, and begins to document the changes in gender relations and social and cultural norms as Iran moved
113 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the risk and protective factors for different outcomes of radicalization were collated and synthesized, and a rank-order of factors based on their pooled estimates was developed to gain a better understanding of which factors may be most important, and the differential effects on the different outcomes.
Abstract: This systematic review sought to collate and synthesize the risk and protective factors for different outcomes of radicalization. We aimed to firstly quantify the effects of all factors for which rigorous empirical data exists, and secondly, to differentiate between factors related to radical attitudes, intention, and behaviors. The goal was to develop a rank-order of factors based on their pooled estimates in order to gain a better understanding of which factors may be most important, and the differential effects on the different outcomes. Random effects meta-analysis pooled primarily bivariate effect sizes to calculate pooled estimates for each factor. Meta-regression was used to examine the effects of a range of study-level characteristics, including the effects of using partial effects sizes as supplementary effect sizes where bivariate estimates were unavailable. Subgroup analysis was used to further analyze the extent to which the combining of effect sizes from different sources contributed to heterogeneity and estimate inflation. Leave-one-out sensitivity analysis was used to identify cases where a single study was a significant source of heterogeneity. Extensive searches in English, German and Dutch resulted in the screening of more than 10,000 items, and a final inclusion of 57 publications published between 2007 and 2018 from which 62 individual level factors were identified across three radicalization outcomes: attitudes, intentions, and actions. Effect sizes ranged from z − 0.621 to 0.572. The smallest estimates were found for sociodemographic factors, while the largest effect sizes were found for traditional criminogenic and criminotrophic factors such as low self-control, thrill-seeking, and attitudinal factors, with radical attitudes having the largest effect on radical intentions and behaviors. The most commonly researched factors, sociodemographic factors, have exceptionally small effects, even when effect sizes are derived from bivariate relationships. The finding regarding the effects of radical attitudes on intentions and actions provide empirical support for existing theoretical frameworks. The consistency among the clustering of familiar criminogenic factors within the rank-order could have implications for the development of a more evidence based approach to risk assessment and counter violent extremism policies.
78 citations
08 Jan 2019
TL;DR: This dissertation aims to provide a history of search-and-rescue operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1989 to 2002, a period chosen in order to explore its roots as well as specific cases up to and including the end of the conflict.
Abstract: Contributing Authors: Lt. Gen John N. “Jack” Shanahan, Ziad Alahdad, Latéfa Belarouci, Cheryl Benard, Kurt Braddock, William Casebeer, Steve Corman, Paul Davis, Karl DeRouen, Diane DiEuliis, Evelyn Early, Alexis Everington, Dipak Gupta, Tawfik Hamid, John Horgan, Qamar-ul Huda, Eric Larson, Anthony Lemieux, Robert Nill, Paulina Pospieszna, Tom Rieger, Marc Sageman, Anne Speckhard, Troy Thomas, Lorenzo Vidino
72 citations
TL;DR: The authors evaluates the most influential current approaches to the mechanisms of radicalisation on the basis of their empirical evidence and calls for a focus on research designs capable of arbitrating on matters of causality, not just correlation.
55 citations
References
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Book•
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01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: Gurr's Why Men Rebel remains highly relevant to today's violent and unstable world with its holistic, people-based understanding of the causes of political protest and rebellion as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Why Men Rebel was first published in 1970 after a decade of political violence across the world. Forty years later, serious conflicts continue in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Ted Robert Gurr reintroduces us to his landmark work, putting it in context with the research it influenced as well as world events. Why Men Rebel remains highly relevant to today's violent and unstable world with its holistic, people-based understanding of the causes of political protest and rebellion. With its close eye on the politics of group identity, this book provides new insight into contemporary security challenges.
4,064 citations
"Understanding Political Radicalizat..." refers background in this paper
...…quest differs from relative deprivation theory, which predicts anger and aggression from individuals and groups who believe that their status is less than it should be (Gurr, 1970; Kruglanski, Chen, Dechesne, Fishman, & Orehek, 2009, pp. 345–346; see also in Moghaddam’s, 2005, staircase model)....
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TL;DR: The attitude concept is the primary building stone in the edifice of social psychology [p. 45] and the extensive attitude literature in the past 20 years supports this contention as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Gordon Allport (1954) has described the attitude concept as "the primary building stone in the edifice of social psychology [p. 45]," and the extensive attitude literature in the past 20 years supports this contention. Stimulated primarily by the cognitive consistency theories, thousands of pages have been written recently on attitude formation and change. One possible reason for the popularity of the attitude concept is that social psychologists have assumed that attitudes have something to do with social behavior. Cohen (1964), in the concluding chapter of his book. Attitude Change and Social Influence, states:
2,229 citations
"Understanding Political Radicalizat..." refers background in this paper
...In a seminal review of literature on the relationship between attitude and behavior, Wicker (1969) noted, “Taken as a whole, these studies suggest that it is considerably more likely that attitudes will be unrelated or only slightly related to overt behaviors than that attitudes will be closely…...
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Book•
14 May 2004TL;DR: The origins of the Jihad, the Mujahedin, and social networks and the Jihad: Names of Terrorists Glossary of Foreign-Language Terms are reviewed.
Abstract: Preface 1. The Origins of the Jihad 2. The Evolution of the Jihad 3. The Mujahedin 4. Joining the Jihad 5. Social Networks and the Jihad Conclusion Appendix: Names of Terrorists Glossary of Foreign-Language Terms Bibliography Index
1,935 citations
"Understanding Political Radicalizat..." refers background in this paper
...Leaderless Jihad (2008) In his earlier book, Understanding Terror Networks, Sageman (2004) used open-source material to study 172 participants in anti-Western jihad....
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TL;DR: Deux etudes examinent les relations entre different types d'appreciation and de disposition a l'action and des categories emotionnelles variees dans des epreuves de memorisation d'experiences d'etats emotionnels as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Deux etudes examinent les relations entre differents types d'appreciation et de disposition a l'action et des categories emotionnelles variees dans des epreuves de memorisation d'experiences d'etats emotionnels
1,916 citations
TL;DR: The idea that adolescents are more inclined toward risky behavior and risky decision making than are adults and that peer influence plays an important role in explaining risky behavior during adolescence is supported.
Abstract: In this study, 306 individuals in 3 age groups--adolescents (13-16), youths (18-22), and adults (24 and older)--completed 2 questionnaire measures assessing risk preference and risky decision making, and 1 behavioral task measuring risk taking. Participants in each age group were randomly assigned to complete the measures either alone or with 2 same-aged peers. Analyses indicated that (a) risk taking and risky decision making decreased with age; (b) participants took more risks, focused more on the benefits than the costs of risky behavior, and made riskier decisions when in peer groups than alone; and (c) peer effects on risk taking and risky decision making were stronger among adolescents and youths than adults. These findings support the idea that adolescents are more inclined toward risky behavior and risky decision making than are adults and that peer influence plays an important role in explaining risky behavior during adolescence.
1,874 citations
"Understanding Political Radicalizat..." refers background in this paper
...Sageman’s work echoes well-established findings in social psychology that groups can exert social influence on individuals’ decision making (Myers & Lamm, 1976), risktaking (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005), and immoral behavior (Zimbardo, 2007)....
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