In Search of a Deradicalisation Strategy

The academic community has shown unprecedented interest in the process of radicalisation since 2001, as have social scientists and other researchers. Terrorism studies no longer lie on the margins between political science and military studies, as they once did. Today, ‘terrorism studies are a standalone subject entering a golden age’ (Shepherd, 2007). However, the focus has thus far been more on the motivations for violent extremism. The equally important question of what leads an individual or a group to leave, disengage from, or exit violent extremism has attracted far less attention. As John Horgan (2007, p.29) wrote, the ‘disengagement phase remains the most poorly understood and least researched’. This despite the fact that several countries have developed and introduced ‘soft’ strategies, as opposed to ‘hard’ — military — strategies, to counter radicalisation and extremism that lead to violence. Turkey, for example, introduced such strategies in the early 1990s, followed by Egypt and Algeria in the mid and late 1990s, Indonesia and Yemen in the early 21st century (around 2002), Saudi Arabia and Jordan around 2005, and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, among others, thereafter. Yet, little is known about these programmes, their composition, sequence, operation, administration, or even performance (UN, 2008).