While this university is home to a national terrorism research center, two university professors are planning a study into the root causes of radicalization that will take them across continents.
After receiving a $4.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, psychology professors Arie Kruglanski and Michele Gelfand along with other members of a research team are now finishing negotiations with foreign governments in order to conduct field research in the Middle East, North Africa and South and Southeast Asia to study the causes of terrorist radicalization in politically unstable regions, as well as ways to prevent it.
Kruglanski said he and Gelfand, the project’s principal investigators, and the other researchers will study the psychological and social triggers that motivate people to choose violence to advocate for a cause.
Kruglanski said the researchers will primarily focus on young people, citing that people between ages 17 and 27 are most likely to adopt radicalism.
“We are going to look at how this theory, this process, plays out in different cultural circumstances,” he said.
The study will involve a variety of research methods, including conducting interviews, Kruglanski said. However, before embarking on the project, they must finish negotiating with the countries’ governments.
Although terrorism and radicalization are sensitive issues and diplomacy is required, Kruglanski said all countries involved are hoping for the same outcome.
“These are all friendly countries to the United States, and they share the goal of understanding radicalization,” he said.
The researchers will focus on countries in these areas of the world because the regions are politically unstable.
Kruglanski said he hopes the information they gather will prove to be valuable in reversing and mitigating radicalization in order to gain ground against terrorists, rather than simply reacting to their actions.
“We need to get to the root of the problem and think strategically as opposed to only tactically,” he said.
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism’s Executive Director, Bill Braniff, said he thinks the research will shed light on the success of deradicalization programs and help improve such programs. He added that the “capture, kill” method of counterterrorism is not a comprehensive strategy,
“How do you provide or foster deradicalization as opposed to just capture and kill individuals who have gone down this road?” he said.
Sophomore marketing major Jeremy Horowitz said he thought researching the causes of radical terrorism would help fill a gap in terrorism research.
“The best way to solve a problem and eradicate it is to understand where it comes from, and to find as many ways to solve it as possible,” Horowitz said.
START and the university have made a push to engage students in terrorism studies, Braniff said. He has seen an increase in student interest and said he could foresee students studying terrorism seeking involvement with research similar to the work Kruglanski is involved with.
As terrorism and political instability remain pressing issues, Kruglanski said he hopes the team’s findings will help develop global deradicalization tactics that today’s students will put in place.
“The students who are taking courses on terrorism and the approaches to terrorism … are going to be the next cadre of researchers and officials who would carry out anti-radicalization programs,” he said. “They would probably be best equipped to deal with these issues.”
kelley@umdbk.com
