How British and Indonesian Extremists Deradicalize

• In Event: Terrorist Group Decision-Making: Trends in Tactics, Rhetoric and Exit

Abstract

In the terrorism studies literature there is a tendency to conceptualize deradicalization as an end state, achieved when a former militant has rejected the ideas and attitudes that once propelled him or her to political violence. In contrast, we conceptualize deradicalization as a process of moving away from violence and blurring the intellectual boundaries between in-group and out-group. Rather than thinking of radicalization and de-radicalization as outcomes, it may be more fruitful for scholars to unpack the processes and trajectories through which deradicalization occurs.

In this paper, we draw on our respective field work with 48 British and 81 Indonesian militants to explore the processes and pathways via which our respondents deradicalize. For these individuals deradicalization has been a journey involving a range of outcomes. Some militants deradicalize fully by revising prior held views regarding the conditions under which violence is permissible and the need to keep separate from the broader society. Others, however, only “partially deradicalize” by disengaging from their militant groups and postponing or revising some of their prior held views on violence, while keeping separate from broader society. Still others may rejoin society for instrumental reasons while still holding some views legitimating the use of violence. Drawing on this small but illustrative combined sample of 123 militants, we suggest that not only do individuals experience deradicalization differently but they also come to rest at different places in that trajectory. Understanding that variation is critical to recognizing how deradicalization occurs, and, in doing so, designing appropriate interventions.

Authors

• Julie Chernov Hwang, Goucher College

• Michael Kenney, University of Pittsburgh