OPINION: Our anti-terrorism strategies have yet to adapt to the new ways people become radicalized, leaving us vulnerable to further violence and attacks from groups and individuals across the ideological spectrum.
It has been two decades since the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. Since then, researchers, security professionals, and other experts have developed a greater understanding of the threat posed by violent extremism and terrorism.
The vast majority of deradicalization and prevention programs, however, were created with no pilot testing. Few were evaluated to determine whether they were effective. The evaluations that did take place produced mostly dubious reports that lacked transparency. As a result, there is little evidence to suggest that past deradicalization and prevention programs achieved their intended goals.
More idiosyncratic and unpredictable This approach to ideology-building reflects the ways that people radicalize. Where past extremists were radicalized through membership in hierarchical groups with leaders, initiation rites, and clear ideologies, today’s extremists encounter their ideas through self-radicalizing networks and echo chambers online.
One of the most promising approaches is called attitudinal inoculation, which is based on decades of research that promotes public health. A key strength of this inoculation strategy is its flexibility and how it can be implemented in online spaces, where we need effective ways to engage and prevent radicalization. This is especially important in light of recent research showing that individuals who engage in harmful online behaviors like doxxing or trolling or spend time on unmoderated, anonymized, or encrypted platforms are more prone to persuasion by far-right propaganda.
In the long run, preventing radicalization to extremism will require a combination of preventative media literacy and deep structural solutions to address rising polarization, a sense of middle class precariousness, white citizens’ fears of demographic change, and underlying supremacist thinking. Such changes will not occur overnight- but are essential to any success in preventing extremist violence.
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