Abstract
This paper is the first in a series of papers that aim to address Islamist violent radicalization from different angles: the nature of violent radicalization in the context of Spain; a comparison between European, North American, and Indian violent radicalization; the need to refine territorial radicalization indexes within the context of preventing violent radicalization and the relation between Islamist violent radicalization; and other forms of violent radicalization in Europe. This series of articles builds upon the general theoretical framework established by the author in two previous works. These works are framed under the known conception of three layers of micro, meso, and macro factors contributing to violent radicalization processes. The paper starts by defining Islamist violent radicalization. Then, it explores different theoretical explanations, and finally, it proposes an explanatory hypothesis that is tested against, on the one hand, data proceeding from different institutional sources in Spain and, on the other, some initial conversations to Spanish security officials and people who were radicalized in the past and regretted it or lived very close to others that did it. In further articles, these preliminary conversations will become life stories and in-depth interviews.
Highlights
This paper is the first in a series of papers that aim to address Islamist violent radicalization from different angles: the nature of violent radicalization in the context of Spain; a comparison between European, North American, and Indian violent radicalization; the need to refine territorial radicalization indexes within the context of preventing violent radicalization and the relation between
There is no consensus on its meaning, radicalization could be described as a complex nonlinear process where structural, cognitive, and attitudinal factors lead an individual or collective to question and reject the norms of the society or the group to which they belong
The Attitudes-Behaviors Corrective Model on Violent Extremism (ABC) theoretical model aims to correct the explanations that dissociate thought from action in the process of violent radicalization that leads to terrorism
Summary
Theoretical efforts to explain violent radicalization from the causal and universal standpoints, as well as single-factor explanations, have been unsuccessful. That tension between exclusively secular, social, economic, and identity explanations, which still exists, impedes the understanding and explanation of such a complex phenomenon which cannot be unraveled by a single variable When this fact was established, a general framework of factors was developed, to which reference was made in the introduction, that leads to radicalization: individual motivations—of the rational, identity, normative and emotional kind; meso-sociological contextual factors—the group, known offenders, the radicalization agent; and macrostructural—large-scale conflicts, the media, armed forces and police action, the existence of terrorist organizations. Authors like Oliver Roy, without being the architects of this theory, have given empirical support to this explanation by showing how in France, for example, many of the terrorists were neither especially religious nor had they experienced a gradual process of radicalization, but rather an abrupt conversion (2017) This explanation seeks other factors to explain violent behavior such as the previous history with violence, strong uprooting, traumatic experiences, or strong networks of identity and recruitment. An alternative hypothesis will be offered to resolve this apparent dilemma; before doing that, this point will be brought to a close, as previously mentioned by retrieving, on the one hand, some elements of consensus beyond the universal explanations and outlining, on the other hand, the reasons why it becomes challenging to find a more general theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. 5 of 18
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