Is network theory the most suitable for understanding terrorist radicalisation?

• Authors: Reinskou Mari Cecilie Tolfsen
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Terrorist radicalisation has been broadly discussed in different research environments, and there are many different opinions about reasons why some people resort to such extreme acts of terrorism. In January 2015, the Kouachi brothers went into the satire company of Charlie Hebdo in France and killed 12 people, and in November the same year a group of terrorists killed 139 people in different attacks in Paris. There have been many terrorist attacks not only in European countries, but also around the world in general. It is not something new, but globalisation and closeness to the media make us more aware of the terror than earlier. The purpose of the paper is to argue, by using different theories within the terrorism studies, that network theory is not the most suitable way to understand terrorist radicalisation, but that different theories in general supplement each other. At the beginning terminology will be explained, followed by introducing network theory, comparing theories on the basis of different factors like understanding terrorist's background, and look at both internal and external factors that influence individuals. Subsequently, different theories will be compared on how well they explain the root causes for violent actions leading to final conclusions.

Keywords

EN

Terrorism; International security; Roots of terrorism; Theories of terrorism

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii WSB
• Journal: Security Forum
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 1
• Issue: Volume 1 No. 1/2017
• Pages: 39-47

Contributors

author

Reinskou Mari Cecilie Tolfsen

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.26410/SF_1/17/4