After September 11, 2001, Western security officials began to ask how to prevent terrorist attacks—how to “get to the left of the boom.” Radicalization became the popular term to refer to events leading up to a terrorist attack,
After September 11, 2001, Western security officials began to ask how to prevent terrorist attacks—how to “get to the left of the boom.” Radicalization became the popular term to refer to events leading up to a terrorist attack, as individuals and groups adopt radical beliefs and feelings and move to radical action. Political radicalization thus refers to change in beliefs, feelings, and actions toward increased support for one side of a political conflict.1
Radicalization occurs to both sides in the back-and-forth of conflict. Nineteen Muslims were radicalized to attack the US on 9/11, and the US was radicalized in reaction. That reaction continues in 2020, eighteen years and trillions of dollars later, with a war on terrorism abroad and a growing security state at home.
Often mentioned in relation to radicalization is political extremism. There is no objective definition of this term, but the US Government has tried to define a somewhat narrower concept, violent extremism: violent extremists are “individuals who support or commit ideologically-motivated violence to further political goals.”2 Two issues challenge this definition. First, the definition assumes that political violence is ideologically motivated. Second, the definition targets equally those who justify (“support”) political violence and those who commit political violence.
The same two issues arise in relation to radicalization. Because radicalization includes the adoption of radical ideas, it is easy to assume that radical action, including terrorism, is caused by radical ideas. The same assumption leads to the conclusion that fighting radicalization means fighting both radical ideas and radical action
Consider first the assumption that political violence is ideologically motivated. Politic