American jihadist travelers in Iraq and Syria

Meleagrou-Hitchens, Alexander; Hughes, Seamus; Clifford, Bennett

doi:10.4337/9781786438027.00025

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees and domestic terrorists may need more specialist tailoring as our analysis demonstrates different support structures, motivations, and experiences for these two groups. Having a better understanding of the networks, the individuals involved, and their roles could offer greater opportunities to interdict travel and plots, especially as members of networks can use their influence to block, as well as facilitate, terrorist behaviors (Meleagrou-Hitchens, Hughes and Clifford 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From 2011 to 2016, it is estimated that at least 42,000 people traveled from 120 countries to fight alongside jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq (CISAC 2021). While estimates vary, among them were as many as 300 Americans who either traveled or attempted to travel to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; Barrett 2017; Meleagrou-Hitchens, Hughes and Clifford 2018). During the same period, nearly 100 individuals who were inspired by ISIS plotted to commit terrorist attacks in the United States.…”

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Choosing Where to Fight: Do Social Networks Distinguish American ISIS Foreign Fighters from ISIS-Inspired Terrorists?

Jensen

Ferguson

Kane

et al. 2023

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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Why did some American citizens choose to travel to fight in Syria and Iraq rather than engage in Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-inspired terrorism in the United States? We conducted a social network analysis (SNA) on a sample ( n = 224) of extremists who either plotted ISIS-inspired attacks within the United States or attempted to travel to Syria or Iraq to join the group between 2013-2020. We test how network size, network interconnectedness, and the importance of trusted network members impact the choice of American ISIS offenders to travel or plot terrorist attacks. Our results show that Americans were more likely to choose to travel to fight when they had access to large, dense networks that were embedded with trusted associates. Those without access to similar networks abandoned their preferences for foreign fighting and instead plotted attacks within the United States. The findings provide pertinent policy implications for countering violent extremism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Choosing Where to Fight: Do Social Networks Distinguish American ISIS Foreign Fighters from ISIS-Inspired Terrorists?

Jensen

Ferguson

Kane

et al. 2023

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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Does context matter? European-specific risk factors for radicalization

Wolfowicz

Weisburd

Hasisi

2021

Monatsschrift Für Kriminologie Und Strafrechtsreform

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In this study we sought to identify whether risk and protective factors for radicalization can be classed as ‘universal’ factors or whether they have heterogeneous cross-regional effects. Specifically, we sought to identify whether there were factors which displayed significantly different effects in European contexts compared to other democratic countries. We conduct a confirmatory meta-analysis based on a recent Campbell Collaboration systematic review and meta-analysis (Wolfowicz, Litmanovitz, Weisburd and Hasisi, 2021). Studies were classified as being from either EU or non-EU countries and moderator analysis was used to identify between-region heterogeneity. The analysis was possible for 23 factors pertaining to radical attitudes, 13 pertaining to radical intentions and 4 for radical behaviours. For radical attitudes, the estimates for European studies were significantly larger for Gender, Socio-economic status, and Parental involvement, whereas the estimates for Religiosity, Institutional trust, Integration, and Moral neutralizations were significantly smaller compared to other democratic countries in other regions. For radical intentions, the estimates for Self-esteem was significantly larger for European studies. For radical behaviours, the estimate for Unemployment was significantly larger for European studies than for democratic countries in other regions. Overall, most risk and protective factors for radicalization appear to have ‘universal’ effects across democratic countries, but there are some factors that may be more relevant for targeting by counter-radicalization in certain contexts. Although European counter-radicalization has often focused on factors such as integration and institutional trust, these factors have relatively small relationships with radicalization, and these relationships are even smaller in the European context compared to democratic countries in other regions. The findings suggest that mitigation strategies, and interventions providing employment opportunities in particular, may be well suited to the European context if the goal is to develop locally-oriented approaches to counter-radicalization.

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American jihadist travelers in Iraq and Syria

Cited by 2 publications

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Choosing Where to Fight: Do Social Networks Distinguish American ISIS Foreign Fighters from ISIS-Inspired Terrorists?

Choosing Where to Fight: Do Social Networks Distinguish American ISIS Foreign Fighters from ISIS-Inspired Terrorists?

Does context matter? European-specific risk factors for radicalization

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