Shameless Shilling (for someone else)
As I've been perusing some recent posts on counter-radicalization lately, I've realized what a resource I came across while doing my research for my master's program. There are a lot of thoughts on counter-radicalization out there, but few are as clearly thought out or as coherent as John Horgan's. His ideas, and other related authors', are nicely summed up in the excellent anthology, Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and Collective Disengagement. I cannot stress enough how highly I value this book as a resource; you may not agree with everything in it, but it certainly gets the wheels turning.
To introduce it a little bit, I thought I would provide a snippet from my dissertation's section on "De-radicalisation and Disengagement Theory" (yes, I did go to a British university, which may be apparent from the spelling and/or grammar).
Within counter-radicalization discourse, authors such as Horgan promote the distinction between two types of anti-terrorism programming: de-radicalization and disengagement. Writing with Bjørgo, Horgan says ‘it is still far more important to change violent behaviour than change radical attitudes’. Thus, he differentiates between de-radicalization (the process of changing belief systems) and disengagement (separating from terrorist movements). Understanding why individuals become terrorists or remain terrorists may not have an influence on knowing why they leave terrorism, Horgan writes, just as de-radicalization is not automatically related to or necessary for disengagement. In Horgan’s view, de-radicalization is an ambiguous term with vague meaning and purpose, whereas disengagement is both clear and necessary.
Horgan suggests that disengagement from terrorism may be psychological, evidenced by disillusionment or a change in priorities; or it may be physical, carried out by exiting or transitioning within the movement. Moreover, it may be voluntary, a consequence of personal decisions, or involuntary, the effect of external issues. Psychological disengagement often comes from various forms of disillusionment, particularly at the realization that the ‘romantic dream’ of what a movement would look like clashes with reality, though it can also stem from ‘[b]ecoming burned out’ or ‘[c]hanging personal priorities’. Physical disengagement, on the other hand, generally involves voluntarily or involuntarily exiting the movement or transferring to a different role, whether within the organization itself or to a position that is merely supportive of the movement.
It is worth noting that these processes are not necessarily mutually exclusive – that is, a change may result from both psychological transitions as well as physical rearrangement, or it can be a mixture of voluntary and involuntary pressures. Moreover, they are not automatically permanent. An individual may become physically disengaged by being incarcerated, for example, and is thus rendered incapable of actively supporting a particular terrorist organization. A prison can serve either as a space to disengage from terrorism or as an opportunity for further radicalization . A terrorist may ‘disengage’ without fully ‘leaving’ a movement. In any case, programs designed for disengagement must adhere to social, cultural, political and religious norms to be effective. Even then, Horgan says, ‘it is too difficult to draw anything more than generalizations from these initiatives’, though in time and with proper research they might develop into effective policies.
I should note that I removed the in-text citations from these paragraphs, because Word's smart bibliography builder did not translate well to html. The quotes above came from some or all of the following sources (hopefully I didn't miss any):
Bjørgo, Tore, and John Horgan. "Introduction." In Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and collective disengagement, edited by Tore Bjørgo and John Horgan. London: Routledge, 2009.
Horgan, John. "Deradicalization or Disengagement? A Process in Need of Clarity and a Counterterrorism Initiative in Need of Evaluation." Perspectives on Terrorism II, no. 4 (February 2008): 3-8.
Horgan, John. "Individual disengagement: A psychological analysis." In Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and collective disengagement, edited by Tore Bjørgo and John Horgan. London: Routledge, 2009.
Horgan, John, and Kurt Braddock. "Rehabilitating the Terrorists?: Challenges in Assessing the Effectiveness of De-radicalization Programs." Terrorism and Political Violence 22 (2010): 267-291.
