Redirected Radicals: Understanding the Risk of Altered Targeting Trajectories Among ISIL's Aspiring Foreign Fighters

Abstract

Since the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its so-called Caliphate, the terrorist organization has demonstrated its capability and willingness to project force beyond its immediate area of operations in the Middle East, extending to Western countries. Rather than solely dispatching trained foreign fighters, in the United States, ISILs strategy has involved homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) with a limited range of connectivity to the group. This thesis explores the threat posed by a subgroup of HVEs identified as redirected radicals, aspiring foreign fighters who, when prevented by counterterrorism actions from traveling overseas, decided instead to alter their targeting trajectory and commit violence in their home countries.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1029778

Entities

People

  • John T. Gordon

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Case Studies
  • Counterterrorism
  • Crime
  • Employment
  • Homeland Security
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement Officers
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Social Media
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Violence
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.