Talking Terror

Amarnath Amarasingam is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a Fellow at The George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, and Co-Directs a study of Western foreign fighters based at the University ofWaterloo. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada (2015). His research interests are in radicalization, terrorism, diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, and the sociology ofreligion. He is the editor of Sri Lanka: The Struggle for Peace in the Aftermathof War (2016), The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News (2011) and Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal (2010). He is also the author of several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has presented papers at over 100 national and international conferences, and has written for The New York Times, Politico, The Atlantic, Vice News, Foreign Affairs, and War on the Rocks. He tweets at @AmarAmarasingam.

Some research that has influenced Amarnath's career

Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman, T. (1967). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge.

Anthony Giddens (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.

Ziad W. Munson (2009) The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works.

Some of Amarnath's key research

Pain, Pride, and Politics: Social Movement Activism and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diasporain Canada. (2015)

Talking to Foreign Fighters: Insights into the Motivations for Hijrah to Syria and Iraq. With Lorne L. Dawson (2016)

Where do ISIS Fighters Go When the Caliphate Falls? With Colin P. Clarke (2017)

Dr. Kumar Ramakrishna is a tenured Associate Professor and Head Policy Studies, as well as Coordinator of the National Security Studies Programme, in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Prior to this appointment he was Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) in RSIS (2006-2015).

He co-edited The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends and Counter-Strategies (2002) as well as After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia (2004). His first single-authored book, Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds, 1948-1958 (2002) was described by the International History Review as “required reading for historians of Malaya, and for those whose task is to counter insurgents, guerrillas, and-terrorists”. His most recent book, Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalization in Indonesia (2009) was identified by Perspectives on Terrorism in May 2012 as one of the top 150 books on terrorism and counter-terrorism as well as “an important and insightful case study on the pathways to extremism and violent jihad in Indonesia”. His two most recent books are Islamist Terrorism and Militancy in Indonesia: The Power of the Manichean Mindset (2015), Original Sin? Revising the Revisionist Critique of the 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore (2015) and Singapore Chronicles: Emergency (2016). He has served as a member of the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Resource Panel on Home Affairs and Law; the Board of Trustees, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, the Board of Governors of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) Academy, and the Executive Committee of the Political Science Association (Singapore).

Research that has influenced Kumar's career

Walter Reich (1998) Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind

Mark Juergensmeyer (2000) Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence

James Waller (2005), Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing

Some of Kumar's key research

Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalization in Indonesia (2009).

The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features – AndPossible Policy Responses (2017).

Understanding Youth Radicalization in the Age of ISIS: A Psychosocial Analysis (2016).

Dr. Gary LaFree is Director of START at the University of Maryland and a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University in 1979. LaFree is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and served as President of the ASC in 2005 to 2006. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Crime, Law and Justice Committee and NAS’s Division of Behavioral and Economic Sciences and Education. He was named a Distinguished Scholar Teacher at the University of Maryland in 2012. Much of LaFree's research is related to understanding criminal violence, and he is the senior member of the team that created and now maintains the Global Terrorism Database.

Some research that has influenced Gary's career

Martha Crenshaw (1981) The causes of terrorism.

Ted Gurr (1970) Why men rebel

Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko (2011). Friction: How radicalization happens to them and us.

David C. Rapoport. (2006) Terrorism: The fourth or religious wave.

Some of Gary's key research

Countering Terrorism: No Simple Solutions. With Martha Crenshaw (2017)

Handbook of the Criminology ofTerrorism. With Joshua Freilich (2017)

Putting Terrorism in Context: Insights from the Global Terrorism Database. With Laura Dugan and Erin Miller (2015)

In this week's episode John talks to Prof. John Horgan a Distinguished University Professor at the Global Studies Institute and Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. He has a PhD in applied psychology, and his research focuses on understanding psychological qualities of the pathways into, through, and out of terrorist behavior. His work is widely published, with books including The Psychology of Terrorism (published in over a dozen languages worldwide), Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland’s Dissident Terrorists; Walking Away from Terrorism, Leaving Terrorism Behind, and Terrorism Studies: A Reader. In 2017 he became Editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence and serves on the Editorial Boards of several further journals, including Legal and Criminological Psychology, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Journal of Strategic Security. He is a member of the Research Working Group of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. He has held positions at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), Penn State and the University of St. Andrews, UK. Professor Horgan’s research has been featured in such venues as The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Vice News, CNN, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nature, Scientific American and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Research that has influenced John's career

Max Taylor (1988). The Terrorist.

Paul Wilkinson and Alastair .M. Stewart (Eds.) (1987). Contemporary Research on Terrorism.

Joby Warrick (2015). Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.

Some of John's key research

Psychology and Terrorism: Introduction tothe Special Issue. American Psychologist. (2017)

From Profiles to Pathways and Roots to Routes: Perspectives from Psychology on Radicalization into Terrorism. (2008)

Interviewing the Terrorists: Reflectionson Fieldwork and Implications for Psychological Research (2012)

Dr. Jeffrey Stevenson Murer explores the problems of group violence, inter-communal conflict, and political terrorism through the lens of collective identity formation. Presently he is the Senior Lecturer on Collective Violence in the School of International Relations and a Research Fellow to the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews. In 2006, he edited with Professor Derek Reveron Flashpoints in the War on Terror, and has published in numerous journals including Terrorism and Political Violence, Journal for Terrorism Research, and the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. His forthcoming book, Repeating Hate (Palgrave 2018), explores far-right political extremism and violence in Central Europe, and with Dr. Clare Bielby, he is the co-editor of another forthcoming volume Perpetrating Selves: Performing Identity, Doing Violence (Palgrave 2018). As well as being a Scottish Institute for Policing Research Lecturer, in 2017 Murer became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Some research that has influenced Jeffrey's career

Vamik Volkan (1988) The Need for Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to International Relationships

Julia Kristeva (1991) Strangers to Ourselves

Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein (1991) Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities

Some of Jeffrey's key research

Understanding collective violence: The communicative and performative qualities of violence in acts of belonging (2014)

Ethnic Conflict: An Overview of Analyzing and Framing Communal Conflicts from Comparative Perspectives. (2012)

The Emergence of a Lumpen-consumerate: The Aesthetics of Consumption and Violence in the English Riots of 2011 (2015)

Constructing the Enemy-Other: Anxiety, Trauma and Mourning in the Narratives of Political Conflict. (2009)

Happy new year from all at Talking Terror!

In the first episode of 2018 John talks to Prof. Neil Ferguson, a Professor of Political Psychology at Liverpool Hope University and a Visiting Research Fellow to the Changing Character of War Programme at Pembroke College, Oxford. His research has focused on political conflict and its psychological implications since he studied towards his PhD at the University of Ulster. His research focuses on processes of engagement, involvement and disengagement from politically motivated violence focusing on paramilitary groups based in Northern Ireland. He has published in psychological and politics journals, contributed to a number of edited volumes and offered critical advice to various governments, security agencies and NGOs on issues around radicalization, terrorism and counter-terrorism.

In this episode he speaks about the following publications which he has produced, and those which have influenced him.

Some research that has influenced Neil's career

Andrew Silke (1998). Cheshire-cat logic: The recurring theme of terrorist abnormality in psychological research.

Jerold M. Post, Ehud Sprinzak, and Laurita M. Denny (2003). The terrorists in their own words:Interviews with 35 incarcerated Middle Eastern terrorists.

Jeff Victoroff (2005). The Mind of the Terrorist: A Review and Critique of Psychological Approaches.

Some of Neil's key research

Understanding Radicalization and Engagement in Terrorism through Religious Conversion Motifs. With Eve Binks (2015)

Leaving violence behind: Disengaging from politically motivated violence in Northern Ireland. With Mark Burgess and Ian Hollywood (2015)

Crossing the Rubicon: Deciding to Become a Paramilitary in Northern Ireland. With Mark Burgess and Ian Hollywood (2008)

(Apologies for the, at times, poor sound quality in this episode)

In today's episode John speaks to James Piazza, a Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of over 30 articles on terrorism, counterterrorism and political violence. His research uses a quantitative, data-driven approach to examine the political, economic, social, institutional and religious-cultural forces that drive terrorist activity globally. Some topics he has examined in his research include the relationship between poverty, socioeconomic factors and terrorism, terrorism and political regime type, human rights abuses and terrorism, minorities and terrorism, religion and terrorism, the drug trade and natural resources and terrorism. His work has appeared in a variety of journals including the Journal of Politics, the American Political Science Review, International Organizations, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Science, International Studies Quartelry, Comparative Political Studies, Public Choice and Terrorism and Political Violence. At Penn State, Piazza teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on terrorism.

The research discussed are:

Some research that has influenced Jim's career

Ervand Abrahamian (1989) Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin.

Robert Pape (2003) The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.

Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova (2003) Education, Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection.

Some of Jim's key research

Poverty, Minority Economic Discrimination and Domestic Terrorism. (2011)

Autocracies and Terrorism. With Matthew C. Wilson (2013)

Repression and Terrorism: A Cross-National Empirical Analysis of Types of Repression and Domestic Terrorism. (2017)

In this week's episode John speaks to Paul Gill from the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London. In this episode he talks about his research on lone actor terrorism, the Provisional IRA, applied security studies, and the psychology of terrorism. He also speaks about those pieces of research which influenced thinking about and approach to the study of terrorism.

In the episode Paul talks about the following pieces:

Research that has influenced Paul's career

Robert A. Fein, & Bryan Vossekuil (1999). Assassination in the United States: An operational study of recent assassins, attackers, and near-lethal approachers.

Jeff Victoroff (2005). The mind of the terrorist: A review and critique of psychological approaches.

John Horgan (2004). The psychology of terrorism.

Some of Paul's key research

Lethal Connections: The Determinants of Network Connections in theProvisional Irish Republican Army, 1970-1998. With Jeongyoon Lee, Karl Rethemeyer, John Horgan, and Victor Asal (2014)

Across the Universe? A Comparative Analysis of Violent Radicalization Across Three Offender Types with Implications for Criminal Justice Training and Education. A Report for the National Institute of Justice. With John Horgan, Noemie Bouhana, James Silver and Emily Corner (2016)

Lone-Actor Terrorists: A Behavioural Analysis. (2015)

In this week's episode John speaks to Orla Lynch from University College Cork about her research and influences. In this they speak about child soldiers, the importance of researching victims of terrorism and the role of psychology in understanding terrorist involvement. In the episode Orla discusses the following texts:

Research that influenced Orla’s career

Max Taylor and John Horgan (2000) The Future of Terrorism.

Paul Wilkinson (2000) Terrorism Versus Democracy

Timothy Knatchbull (2009). From a clear blue sky. Surviving the Mountbatten bomb.

Some of Orla’s key research

Terrorism and Psychological Processes. (Forthcoming 2018)

British Muslim Youth and the Construction of the Other. (2013)

Child returnees from Conflict Zones. With Sharon Lambert (2016)

In this week's episode John returns to the interviewers chair and interviews Dr. Kurt Braddock a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State. Dr. Braddock leverages communication theory to explore the persuasive effectiveness of terrorist groups' strategic messages (particularly narratives) intended to recruit or radicalize audiences. He also develops theory-based guidelines for developing strategic messages that counter the radicalization process. His work has been published in several communication and terrorism journals, including Communication Monographs, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Dr. Braddock has performed research for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the British government.

Research that has influenced Kurt's career

John Horgan (2008). From Profiles to Pathways and Roots to Routes: Perspectives from Psychology on Radicalization into Terrorism

Jerold Post, Ehud Sprinzak, and Laurita Denny (2003). The terrorists in their own words: Interviews with 35 incarcerated Middle Eastern terrorists

Max Taylor and John Horgan (2006). A conceptual framework for addressing psychological process in the development of the terrorist.

Some of Kurt's key research

Towards a guide for constructing and disseminating counternarratives to reduce support forterrorism. With John Horgan (2015).

Meta-analytic evidence for the persuasive effect of narratives on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. With James Price Dillard (2016)

Treatment approaches for terrorists and extremists. (Forthcoming)