Combating Jihadist Terror

Dr Anthony Richards’ guest on this final Series 2 episode of CoJiT’s Combating Jihadist Terror podcast is Sarah Marsden, Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews’ Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. The podcast focuses initially on her work for the Centre for Research & Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), the UK’s hub for behavioural and social science research into security threats. Dr Marsden is currently leading two CREST projects: ‘Constraining Violence’ where she discusses her research on how individual, social and subcultural factors constrain the potential for extremist violence; and ‘Trauma, Adversity and Violent Extremism’ where she reveals how her research on the direct and indirect effects of trauma, including emotional neglect and physical abuse, may advance our understanding of radicalisation. Changing tack, there is then a fascinating discussion on Dr Marsdens’ identification of the difficulties for the social media giants of identifying ‘terroristic’ material on their sites, with cross border and freedom of speech issues among many others making this a fiendishly tricky exercise. Finally, Dr Marsden is asked about one of her key contentions that reintegrating extremists in society rather than first seeking to de-radicalise them is the better way to go about it for which she makes both a convincing and appealing case.

Dr Marsden’s most recent book is available here Reintegrating Extremists: Deradicalisation and Desistance: Amazon.co.uk: Marsden, Sarah V.: 9781137550187: Books

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, and which was co-edited by Dr Richards, please click here.

This penultimate number in Series 2 of CoJiT’s Combating Jihadist Terror podcast sees Anthony Richards joined by Dr Elizabeth Grimm, Associate Teaching Professor and Director of Teaching at the Centre for Security Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.  Against the background of US missile strikes that killed the leaders of al-Qaeda in August and al-Shabaab in October this timely discussion focuses on Dr Grimm’s new book (co-authored with American University’s Dr Tricia Bacon) ‘Terror in Transition: Leadership and Succession in Terrorist Organizations’. The podcast begins by detailing the interdisciplinary nature of their research and setting out the key questions the authors sought to answer: what is the role of the founding leaders of terrorist organizations, what factors shape their successors and what different types of successors are there? Dr Grimm discusses at some length the preparations for handover by al-Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden and the surprising capacity of al-Shabaab to select ‘dark horse’ leaders. She identifies four types of leader and makes the key point that a better understanding of the different leadership types involved potentially has an important impact for counter terrorism policy makers in terms of discrediting terror networks and their messages of violence. 

Dr Grimm’s and Dr Bacon’s new book is available here. Terror in Transition: Leadership and Succession in Terrorist Organizations (Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare): Bacon, Tricia, Grimm, Elizabeth: 9780231192255: Amazon.com: Books]

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, and which was co-edited by Dr Richards, please click here.

This week on the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast series we are delighted to welcome Dame Sara Khan, previously the Lead Commissioner for the Commission for Countering Extremism who has now been appointed, by the Prime Minister, to a new role as the government’s Independent Advisor for Social Cohesion and Resilience to tackle extremism in our communities. In this episode Dr Richards and Dame Sara begin by discussing the  creation of the Commission for Countering Extremism, and the challenges faced when defining ‘extremism’ in the British context both for the Commission and her personally. Dame Sara then gives an impassioned defence of the Commission’s work, notably describing the kind of ‘hateful extremism’ that the Commission found to both exist in this country and to be entirely legal, with some telling examples of the types of actions and groups that fit this description. Finally, Dame Sara  describes her new role and the links between social cohesion and extremism.

The Independent Report that Dame Sara published in February 2021 at the conclusion of her work with the Commission for Countering Extremism,Operating With Impunity: Legal Review, is available here.

Dame Sara has recently opened a ‘Call for Evidence’ to seek views of the experiences of victims of extremism, and on protecting social cohesion and strengthening resilience against extremism. Find more information about this here.

This week on the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast: Anthony Richards is joined by Dr Devorah Margolin, Director of Strategic Initiatives and a Senior Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism, George Washington University. Alongside her work at GWU, Dr Margolin is also a senior investigator with the ISIS Files Project, and the start of this podcast features a discussion about some of the findings that have been unearthed; including interesting insights into how, even for fundamentalists, pragmatism must sometimes trump religion. Dr Margolin and Dr Richards then discuss the role of women and children in violent Islamist groups, the subject of Dr Margolin’s recent PHD thesis, and in particular how women’s roles are conceptualised by these groups. Finally, Dr Margolin gives a fascinating insight into her work looking at women who took part in, and “took ownership of”, the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021.

Dr Margolin’s most recent paper (co-authored with GWU colleague Hilary Matfess) which she discusses towards the end of this podcast, looking at women who participated in the Capitol Hill riots and particularly their connection to and use of social media, is available here.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, and which was co-edited by Dr Margolin and Dr Richards, please click here.

Now on the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast: a discussion between Dr Katherine Brown and CoJiT’s Dr Anthony Richards. Dr Brown begins by outlining what she sees as the difference between CVE and PVE, before examining the limitations of counter-radicalisation and counter-extremism programmes in helping women. Finally, Dr Brown expands on her Humanities for Resilience project - an alternative framework for international development aid that goes beyond the disciplinary boundaries of religious studies and human geography and seeks to explore how the arts and humanities can contribute to understandings and practices of ‘resilience’ in Lower and Middle Income Countries.

Dr Katherine Brown is a Reader in Religion and Global Security at the Department for Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham. She is also co-lead of the Humanities for Resilience project there. Her most recent book,Gender, Religion and Extremism: finding women in anti-radicalisation (Oxford University Press, 2020), is available to purchase here.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.

In this double-length episode of the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast, Dr Richards speaks to Professor Maura Conway. Their discussion begins with a look at classifying extremists and terrorists, they then examine to what extent academics and policymakers should be using the term ‘cyberterrorism”. Finally, Professor Conway expands on her views of how to further research into online extremism, as well as how gender should be used within academic discussions on extremism. Dr Maura Conway is Professor of International Security in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland and Coordinator of VOX-Pol, an EU-funded project on violent online political extremism.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.

This week on Combating Jihadist Terror, Dr Anthony Richards talks to Petter Nesser about jihadi exploitation of refugee streams, and the involvement of refugees in European terrorism. They also touch on Nesser’s categorisation of terrorists as ‘entrepreneurs’, ‘misfits’ and ‘drifters’. Finally, Dr Nesser gives his suggestions for the effective targeting of terrorist networks and advocates for a balance between security and surveillance. Petter Nesser is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment’s (FFI) Terrorism Research Group, and the author of Islamist Terrorism In Europe, an acclaimed and comprehensive account of the rise of Jihadist militancy in Europe from the 1990s onwards.

Islamist Terrorism in Europe is available here.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.

This episode of Combating Jihadist Terror features a conversation with Kurt Braddock, Assistant Professor at the School of Communication at American University, Washington, DC and author of Weaponised Words: The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization (Cambridge University Press, 2020). The discussion focusses on attempts to counter jihadi narratives within both violent and non-violent extremism, with insights into how counter-narratives sometimes reinforce the narratives they are specifically attempting to counter and an assessment of the progress made in the effectiveness of such counter-narratives. Professor Braddock finishes by outlining his current research agenda on countering right-wing narratives, with particular focus paid to the narratives leading to the events in Washington, DC on 6th of January 2021.

Professor Braddock’s most recent book, Weaponised Words, is available here. 

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.

In this episode of the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast Dr Anthony Richards, COJIT’s editorial director, talks to Raffaello Pantucci, Senior Fellow in the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, London. Dr Richards and Mr Pantucci examine the nature, severity, and sophistication of the current terrorist threat - including the implications for the use of modern technology - in future terrorist attacks, with Mr Pantucci stressing his concerns about possible future lone actor terrorists making use of technology and the Internet. Finally, we hear about Mr Pantucci's latest research in his recent paper for the European Institute for Counter-Terrorism and Conflict Prevention (EICTP) on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on transnational terrorism. That paper is available to read here.

Raffaello Pantucci’s most recent book, "We Love Death As You Love Life": Britain’s Suburban Terrorists, is available here, and his recently broadcast BBC Radio 4 show Terrorism and the Mind is available to listen to here. He also regularly publishes his work on his blog.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.

In the first episode of a new series of the Combating Jihadist Terror podcast, Dr Anthony Richards talks to Tahir Abbas, Professor in Radicalisation Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, The Hague. Professor Abbas is also the Scientific Coordinator of the EU-funded H2020 Drive, which is an international research project spanning five countries (including participation by the Universities of Liverpool and Cambridge in the UK) to examine how social inclusion impacts on radicalisation. This episode features discussion on the link between Islamophobia and radicalisation, the role of “pull” factors in radicalisation and the increasingly front-line role of counter-terrorism policy.

Professor Abbas’ latest book Countering Violent Extremism: The International Deradicalization Agenda (Bloomsbury, 2021) is available to purchase here. For further background see his website here.

To buy CoJiT’s own publication – Jihadist Terror: New Threats, New Responses – which synthesises our current understanding of the current terrorist threat and counter terrorist response, please click here.