MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

WHY INDIVIDUALS BECOME
FOREIGN FIGHTERS FOR
VIOLENT EXTREMISTS GROUPS
One of the most pressing issues, particularly in Western countries, is understanding
why individuals become violent extremists.
This is an important question with limited good quality data to
inform evidence-based research. Access to violent extremists for
qualitative studies is limited and individuals who have joined
terrorist groups have done so for vastly different reasons based on
their own socio-economic, political and ideological world views.
This makes generalisations difficult. What is commonly agreed
from the available data is that there is no single ‘terrorist profile’
that can be used to identify at risk individuals reliably. 33 Given
that radicalisation can happen very quickly, in months or weeks
in some cases, countering violent extremism (CVE) needs to take
a broad view of risk factors and assess vulnerability accordingly. 34
To understand violent extremism, the United States Institute of
Peace (USIP) undertook a qualitative study of 2,032 individuals
who chose to leave their home countries to fight for al-Qa’ida
primarily against the United States and its allies. The sources
were primarily drawn from interviews from detainees of coalition
forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Data was
augmented with additional sources such as captured documents,
interviews with family or friends and public records. 35 The
dataset was made entirely of male subjects as very few females
were on record for becoming a foreign member of al-Qa’ida. 36
The results of the USIP study found that individuals who chose
to travel to fight for al-Qa’ida:
Figure 41 shows the prevalence of four broad motivations
developed by USIP to assess individuals that joined al-Qa’ida.
These were ‘identity seeking’, ‘revenge seeking/anger’, ‘status
seeking’ and ‘thrill seeking’. The most common motivation was
‘identity seeking’. Anger and status seeking followed with 30 and
25 per cent respectively. The thrill seeker accounted for the least
at five per cent. 37 Interestingly, similar motivations can be found
in right-wing extremism where alienation, culture and identity
have been found to be contributing factors to membership. 38
FIGURE 41 MOTIVATIONS FOR FOREIGN
FIGHTERS JOINING AL-QA’IDA, 2010
Identity was the largest reason that foreign fighters
joined al-Qa’ida, followed by anger, status and
thrill seeking.
40%
Were not ‘crazy’ or psychopathic — they had made a
measured choice to fight for al-Qa’ida. Furthermore,
the appeal of groups like al-Qa’ida is that they only
recruit the most devout and reliable people. People
with anti-social behaviour tend to be unreliable in
practice.
Were not from one economic profile — some had been
long-term unemployed whilst others were from
privileged backgrounds.
PERCENTAGE
30%
20%
10%
Had an inadequate understanding of Islam — many
were raised in households where faith was routinely
practised but was not a dominating force.
Were not approached by al-Qa’ida but rather sought
out membership.
0%
Identity
seeking
Revenge
seeking
Status
seeking
Thrill
seeking
Source: USIP
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Correlates and Drivers of Terrorism
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