What We're Reading

January 2020 | Methods

Starting off a strong and rigorous year, this month RESOLVE is providing resources on methods for research on violent extremism. The articles help match different types of research methods (e.g. interviews, surveys, focus groups, experimental methods, participant observation, agent-based modeling, social network analysis, etc.) to different types of research questions on violent extremism. Three common research subjects in violent extremism are 1) attitudes, 2) behaviors, and 3) social dynamics. To illustrate measures under these three categories and suitable methods to study them, the resources stand as examples using one or more possible methods to understand the three topics of focus. The first 4 articles are examples of researching attitudes, the next 5 of behaviors, and the last 5 of social dynamics.

 

 

Attitudes  

Casey, Kevin, and David Pottebaum. “Youth and Violent Extremism in Mindanao, Philippines: A Mixed-Methods Design for Testing Assumptions about Drivers of Extremism” DAI, August 24, 2018. https://www.dai.com/uploads/Youth%20and%20Violent%20Extremism%20in%20Mindanao,%20Philippines.pdf 

Fair, Christine, and Bryan Shepherd. “Who Supports Terrorism? Evidence from Fourteen Muslim Countries” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 24 Feb 2007. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576100500351318 

Kendhammer, Brandon, and Adama Ousmanou. “Islam, Higher Education, and Extremism in Cameroon” RESOLVE Network, 19 February 2019. https://www.resolvenet.org/research/islam-higher-education-and-extremism-cameroon 

Kurtz, Jon , Beza Tesfaye, and Rebecca J. Wolfe. “Can Economic Interventions Reduce Violence? Impacts of Vocational Training and Cash Transfers on Youth Support for Political Violence in Afghanistan” Mercy Corps, Feb 2018. https://www.mercycorps.org/sites/default/files/CanEconomicInterventionsReduceViolence_Afghanistan_MercyCorps_Feb2018.pdf 

Behaviors 

Holbrook, Donald. “What Types of Media Do Terrorists Collect? An Analysis of Religious, Political, and Ideological Publications Found in Terrorism Investigations in the UK” International Centre for Counter-terrorism – The Hague, 26 Sep 2017. https://icct.nl/publication/what-types-of-media-do-terrorists-collect-an-analysis-of-religious-political-and-ideological-publications-found-in-terrorism-investigations-in-the-uk/ 

Marchment, Zoe, and Paul Gill. “Modelling the Spatial Decision Making of Terrorists: The Discrete Choice Approach” Applied Geography, March 2019. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0143622818310981 

Pretus, Clara et al. “Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Sacred Values and Vulnerability to Violent Extremism” Frontiers in Psychology, December 21, 2018. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02462/full 

Sharma, Kunaal. “Elite Persuasion and Religious Extremism: An Experiment among Sunni and Shia Muslims in Northern India” Columbia University, 2017. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8CZ3KP7 

Speckhard, Ann. “Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers & ‘Martyrs’” Advance Press, 2012. https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Terrorists-Understanding-Psycho-Social-Rehabilitatio-ebook/dp/B0098WU74A 

Social Dynamics 

Carter, Joseph A., Shiraz Maher, and Peter R. Neumann. “#Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, 2014. https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ICSR-Report-Greenbirds-Measuring-Importance-and-Infleunce-in-Syrian-Foreign-Fighter-Networks.pdf 

Greiff, Tobias. “Violent Places: Everyday Politics and Public Lives in Post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina" Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, April 13, 2008. https://books.google.hu/books/about/Violent_Places.html?id=QAd4DwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 

Li, Bo, Duoyong Sun, Renqi Zhu, and Ze Li. “Agent Based Modeling on Organizational Dynamics of Terrorist Network" Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, November 11, 2015. https://new.hindawi.com/journals/ddns/2015/237809/ 

Sjah, Adlini Ilma Ghaisany. “Tracing Al Shabaab’s Decision to Cooperate with Al Qaeda in Somalia” Journal of Terrorism Research, 2008. https://cvir.st-andrews.ac.uk/article/10.15664/jtr.827/ 

Van Metre, Lauren. “Community Resilience to Violent Extremism in Kenya” U.S. Institute of Peace, October 7, 2016.  

https://www.usip.org/publications/2016/10/community-resilience-violent-extremism-kenya