Key to the center’s mission is dispelling misconceptions about terroristic behavior. At the top of that list is the assumption that terrorists can be profiled. "People become involved in terrorism in many different kinds of ways. We also tend to neglect the fact that people change because of being involved with a terrorist group, says Horgan. "Forty years of research in terrorism hasn’t revealed any meaningful terrorist profile. I suspect there probably never will be one.
Another assumption the center seeks to unseat is that there is a single root cause of terrorism. Although it may appear plausible that societal forces like poverty or discrimination are the driving forces, Horgan counters that this notion has proven to be deeply problematic. "There are multiple ways of explaining terrorism, he says. "There are many people who are radicalized but who don’t participate in it. The terrorism studies community is moving away from single theories.
Horgan’s own work looks at three phases: how and why people become involved in terrorism, what sustains their involvement, and what, if anything, causes them to disengage from active terroristic activities.
"It’s only recently that we’ve come to uncover the complexity associated with how and why people become involved, says Horgan. "That complexity is disheartening to people. But unless we acknowledge and appreciate it, any initiative aimed at preventing terrorism is doomed to failure.
Consider the case of Omar Bakri Muhammad, former leader of Al Muhajiroun, an extremist movement in the UK. He is currently being tried by the Lebanese government for training al Qaeda terrorists.
Omar Bakri defies simple categorization. He does not directly participate in terrorist activities, but holds extremist beliefs. Horgan, who interviewed him in Lebanon for Walking Away from Terrorism, says Omar Bakri still has a lot of anger and blames the West for threatening the security of the Muslim world. "He told me, ‘Radicalization is not something that is bad. I believe radicalization is an essential part of life. … I do not see anything wrong with it, especially as we see the direction the whole world is going.’
Horgan reflects, "One of the lessons from the book is that while in some cases people literally do walk away, in other cases, walking away from one kind of involvement in terrorism means walking toward another kind of involvement. A person might move away from actively seeking to bomb people to a role in the political front. Or they might move from running a terrorist website to escalating their involvement. Disengagement is a more complex process than we think. In more than a decade of interviewing former terrorists, Horgan says he is surprised how much they are willing to reveal. "You just have to ask the right questions. Another surprise, he says, has been that in all those interviews, only one person felt that he had no other choice but to become an active terrorist. Contrary to the popular belief that terrorists are brainwashed, Horgan concludes, the fact is that the vast majority of people involved in terrorist acts have freely chosen to participate.
What does hearten Horgan and his colleagues is the attention and respect they have received from U.S. legislators. "We have the ear of policy makers, he says, "and we have been warmly welcomed by individuals whose role it is to formulate new strategies for countering terrorism.
Horgan returns to his role as an applied psychologist. "The whole point of academic research is for it to have an impact and be relevant in the community at large.
Not a moment too soon.
John Horgan, Ph.D., is associate professor of psychology in the College of the Liberal Arts and director of Penn State’s International Center for the Study of Terrorism (ICST). His latest book, Walking Away from Terrorism: Accounts of Disengagement from Radical and Extremist Movements, was published by Routledge Press in May. Horgan can be reached at jgh11@psu.edu.
