Psychology of Terrorist Group Recruitment Essay

Terrorism has become popular among extremists who are employing different dynamic strategies to thrive in their agenda. Understanding the terror groups is fundamental principle to overcome them or counter the sects. Modern terrorism has additionally advanced. Today 's assaults are less incessant, however all the more savage. Terrorists beforehand acted like renegades trying to connect with the foe (Miller, 2013. This was trailed by a period of kidnappings and plane hijackings. States create first class counter-terrorist strengths, extraordinarily prepared at prisoner transaction and salvage. Like the youngster 's amusement - paper-scissors-stone the following phase of advancement was the appropriation of bombings as the favored strategy (Roberts, 2014). Bombs can be delivered from basic materials, put and exploded remotely, with generally okay to the planes and little open door for counter-terrorist strengths to catch them. Terror groups like the IRA, Al-Qaida, ISIS and Boko

Terrorism is an act that threatens or carries out violence with the intention to disrupt, kill or coerce against a body or nation in order to impose will. This means that a lot of groups use this method to get what they want. The groups use a variety of methods, groups such as:

Domestic terrorist groups are violent extremists that want to attack the U.S. from the inside. Their intent is to frighten, pressure, and/or influence national principles. Today’s terrorist organizations are using cyberspace to spread their message. Training and online recruitment are also being made available by the Internet and social media websites. Some of the acts are lone-wolf attacks and others are collective attacks. Some examples of domestic terrorist groups that use cyberspace are Army of God, Sovereign Citizens, and Phineas Priesthood. The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report on terrorism, stating that more people have been killed in America by non-Islamic domestic terrorists than jihadists (Henderson, 2015). Terrorist

So far, terrorism has been a key obstacle to many foreign nations, as they are struggling to prevent terrorist attacks. From the year of 1997 up to the year of 2003, international terrorist attacks have gone from less than 500 to almost 3000. Overall, global terrorism has grown by almost 1200% from 1997 to 2003. (Johnston 1). This massive increase in terrorism reflects on other nations' lack of control of the safety of their nation. These statistics also show that something needs to be done to protect the

We are all individuals. As individuals, we do not all live the same lives and share the same interests. It is greatly because of this, there are many psychological and behavioral factors that can impact the radicalization of an individual. Not everyone is going to be as receptive to certain things as other people may be. We must understand what the factors are that can increase the likelihood of someone turning to a life of terror in order to have a more significant chance at countering them. It is important to know why someone joins an organization such as al Qaeda or a white supremacist group in order to know which

“In effect, terrorists’ acts should be viewed as “violent language.” For them, the genuine power of terrorism is that it functions as propaganda. The result is behavior modification of the target audience by both coercive and persuasive means (Denton, 2004, p. 4)”. Terrorists use these evil acts to send messages to their victims to emphasize their “Don’t Fuck With Us” axiom and mentality.

A multitude of factors contribute to any type of reasoning or psychological makeup of an individual; whether it is a person’s history of behavioral problems, inability to maintain a functional relationship, or in this case becoming part of a terrorist organization. In Sarah Kershaw’s “The Terrorist Mind: An Update”, we are able to see what drives a person to commit acts of terror where it is praised in a given community.

Terrorism is a difficult issue to understand and grasp for many people. What is even more difficult to understand is what drives an individual to become radicalized to the point of joining a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts. While there is not specific criteria or a “cookie cutter” approach to understanding what motivates and radicalizes an individual to participate in such atrocities, there are however, several psychological and behavioral factors that have been common among these individuals. The following paper will outline some of the psychological and behavioral factors that attribute to an individual’s radicalization and eventual willingness and even perhaps

The "casual" approach to recruitment is a simple way of having the terrorist organization become a selection process that essentially has individuals wanting to join the organization. In the video on blackboard, Marc Sageman discusses how Al Qaida does not actually have a recruiter that works for the terrorist network. Instead uses this as a selection process of having “would be” terrorist come to them, and then later select to recruits it wants. As stated in the video, this allows the organization to grow organically and uses social websites to do the recruiting for them. This is no different then how most colleges or universities get students into their classrooms every year. Submit an application and then hopefully get chosen. Most employers use this same method. Also when you use this method of recruitment, the greatest benefit is the Al Qaida organization picks the best candidates for the positions. It also allows the organization not to have to put itself out there, risking any type of compromise of information or personnel by attempting to recruit. The Al Qaida organization also looks much stronger to the western countries, showing people are willing to self-radicalization and join a terrorist organization

The ever evolving subject of terrorism and terrorists is the subject of significant study worldwide. The psychological and behavioral factors involved in terrorism are one of the most studied issues. It has implications across the board for both the detection and deterrence of terrorism. How terrorists communicate and the influence that it plays in growing terroristic ideology, mission, and goals are also of significant importance, as well.

That call to action can come in many forms of media and to a global audience. “Terrorist recruitment videos, often released online, have been tailored to appeal to various audiences. A propaganda video, which can still be watched on YouTube of captured U.S. soldier, Bowe R. Bergdahl, compares what seems to be his good treatment under al-Qaeda, to those of U.S.-run prisoner of war camps” (Philipp).

Their recruiting process is a complex process where they use specific and general media to encourage participation. ISIS has web pages, video indoctrination, and chat rooms. They also allocate individual people who monitor the webpages and interact with people whom might be interested in joining. The recruiters convey the potential recruits what the caliphate has to offer, which is an “ opportunity to do something more, defend Islam, to fight unbelievers and oppressors of the faithful. (Where does the quote end?) They do their recruiting both individually and collectively through media, mosques, and religious leaders. Once people form allegiance to join ISIS they are taken to the region where they meet up with networks in major cities in Turkey, Syria, or elsewhere. The networks provide the information or the transportation to get the recruits into the caliphate. Individuals who come with little or no experience will be given minimal tasks such as suicide bomber (a terrorist who carries out a bomb attack, knowing that her or she will be killed in the explosion). Young boys under the age of fifteen will be in a camp, and boys over the age of sixteen will join the military. ISIS targets the youth, minorities, in their community that have been decimated or whom voices haven’t been heard. Some youth find that ISIS’s victories alluring anew exciting Orthodox Muslim and see as an opportunity to

An example of targeted recruitment can be seen in the approach of Osama Bin Laden’s Anwar Al-Awlaki. Al-Awaki identified and targeted youths, he formulated sermons to exploit adolescent minds and to draw them into discussions and begin to influence them with propaganda. Al-Awaki would also attract youth by his discussions of rebellion, action and adventure to further their interests into joining the terrorist organization. This method can also reference to the transitional piece in someone’s life, they are prone to learning the ideology of the group and tend not question it, and for those that question they are receive responses iterated from the Qur’an. The piece that is important to this is what little these people understand in their faith, in the case of Mubin Shaikh a former recruiter for the Taliban he talks of how he did not even know much about his faith, however he was using it to recruit new members. Another factor that has changed with the face of recruitment is the change in messaging to today’s youth, not just males but also females. Since Da’esh has become a premiere terrorist organization, they have changed the methods of recruitment. An example of Al Qaeda, they would have videos proclaiming their ideology and talk for thirty to forty-five minutes about it and was very dry. Da’esh has changed that most video propaganda is like a movie; it

Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, combating transnational terrorism continues to be a priority for the USA and other countries around the world. Yet still, the threat posed by terrorism today is fundamentally different than the one confronted on 9/11, as are the tools that needs to be used against it.

As a direct consequence of September 11, a number of substantial challenges lie ahead in the area of counter-terrorism..   The most prominent of these is the changing nature of the terrorism phenomenon.  In past years, when terrorism was largely the product of direct state sponsorship, policymakers were able to diminish prospects for the United States becoming a target using a combination of diplomatic and military instruments to deter potential state sponsors.  Today, however, many terrorist organizations and individuals act independently from former and present state sponsors, shifting to other sources of support, including the development of transnational networks.