Abstract
This chapter examines the potential for mother’s agency as an effective component of the ‘War on Terror’ efforts, by drawing on empirical evidence generated in contexts where the major causes of radicalisation traditionally find ground. The chapter highlights that parents, and mothers in particular, have a deep connection and sophisticated understanding of the factors that shape and define their children’s identity, especially in regard to their psychosocial characteristics of personality formation processes. Within this journey, mothers are considered to be the most effective agency in identifying changes, transformation, and the factors that influence adolescents’ personality and are best placed to understand what might prompt their descent into violence. Yet, parents, who must be considered the first line of defence, are completely absent in research and prevention work, and policies are failing to engage mothers and fathers. Thus the chapter builds the case that the mothers have an acute awareness of deficits and are willing to confront radical influences impacting on their children, but feel as though they are responding less effectively than they could. The chapter concludes that mothers’ natural, underappreciated prevention potential can be developed with the right tools and knowledge and mothers’ preventative potential, establishing capacity-building mechanisms for them, and conceptualising them as key security allies, must be given priority in both policy-making and policy-implementation processes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ainsworth-Vaughn, N. (1998). Claiming power in doctor-patient talk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Altier, M. B., Thoroughgood, C. N., & Horgan, J. G. (2014). Turning away from terrorism: Lessons from psychology, sociology, and criminology. Journal of Peace Research, 51(5), 647–661. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314535946.
Aly, A., Taylor, E., & Karnovsky, S. (2014). Moral disengagement and building resilience to violent extremism: An educational intervention. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 37(4), 369–385.
Bakker, E., Paulussen, C. Y. M., & Entenmann, E. (2013). Dealing with European foreign fighters in Syria: Governance challenges & legal implications. The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, ICCT.
Bjørgo, T., & Horgan, J. (2009). Leaving terrorism behind: Individual and collective disengagement. London: Routledge.
Boeke, S. (2014). Combining exit with strategy: Transitioning from short-term military interventions to a long-term counter-terrorism policy. ICCT Research Paper. The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, ICCT.
Böllinger, L. (1981). Die Entwicklung zu terroristischem Handeln als psychosozialer Prozess. Begegnungen mit Beteiligten. In H. Jäger, G. Schmidtchen, & L. Süllwold (Eds.), Lebenslaufanalysen (pp. 175–231). Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Böllinger, L. (2009). Die Entwicklung zu terroristischem Handeln als psychosozialer Prozess. Beitrag zur AG 1 - Strafverteidigertag Köln. Retrieved from http://www.strafverteidigertag.de/Strafverteidigertage/Ergebnisse/33_AG1_B%F6llinger_EntwTerr.htm.
Chang, W.-W. (2009). Schema adjustment in cross-cultural encounters: A study of expatriate international aid service workers. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.12.003.
Crenshaw, M. (1986). The psychology of political terrorism. In M. G. Hermann (Ed.), Political psychology. Contemporary problems and issues (pp. 374–413). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Crenshaw, M. (2000). The psychology of terrorism: An agenda for the 21st century. Political Psychology, 21(2), 405–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895x.00195.
Davies, L. (2009). Educating against extremism: Towards a critical politicisation of young people. International Review of Education, 55(2–3), 183–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-008-9126-8.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1979). Kindheit und Gesellschaft [childhood and society, 1950]. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
Florez-Morris, M. (2007). Joining guerrilla groups in Colombia: Individual motivations and processes for entering a violent organization. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30(7), 615–634.
Gadamer, H. G. (1990). Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik (6th ed.). Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
Gill, P., & Horgan, J. (2013). Who were the volunteers? 1 the shifting sociological and operational profile of 1240 provisional Irish Republican Army Members. Terrorism and Political Violence, 25(3), 435–456.
Gill, P., Horgan, J., & Deckert, P. (2014). Bombing alone: Tracing the motivations and antecedent behaviors of lone-actor terrorists. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 59(2), 425–435.
Ginges, J. (1997). Deterring the terrorist: A psychological evaluation of different strategies for deterring terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 9(1), 170–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546559708427394.
Hollander, N. C. (2010). Uprooted minds: Surviving the politics of terror in the Americas. Psychoanalysis—history—memoir. New York: Routledge.
Horgan, J. (2005). The psychology of terrorism. In Political violence. London: Routledge.
Horgan, J. (2008). From profiles to pathways and roots to routes: Perspectives from psychology on radicalization into terrorism. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 618(1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716208317539.
Horgan, J. (2009). Walking away from terrorism. Accounts of disengagement from radical and extremist movements. In P. Wilkinson & D. Rapoport (Eds.), Political violence. London: Routledge.
Horgan, J., & Gill, P. (2011). Who are the dissidents? Patterns in the mobilisation and recruitment of violent dissident republicans. In M. Taylor & P. M. Currie (Eds.), Dissident Irish Republicanism (pp. 43–64). New York: The Continuum Group.
Kropiunigg, U. (2010). Kadims Dilemma: Fiktion und Gegenfiktion im islamischen Radikalismus. Psychotherapie Forum, 18(2), 116–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00729-010-0319-9.
Kropiunigg, U. (2013). Framing radicalization and deradicalization: A case study from Saudi Arabia. Journal of Individual Psychology, 69(2), 97–117.
Leander, A. (2005). The power to construct international security: On the significance of private military companies. Millennium-Journal of International Studies, 33(3), 803–825.
Marcia, E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551–558.
McChrystal, S., & Rose, G. (2013). Generation kill. A conversation with Stanley McChrystal. Foreign Affairs, 92(2), 2–8.
Post, J. M. (2005). When hatred is bred in the bone: Psycho-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Political Psychology, 26(4), 615–636.
Post, J. M., Ruby, K. G., & Shaw, E. D. (2002). The radical group in context: 1. An integrated framework for the analysis of group risk for terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 25(2), 73–100.
Reed, A., van Zuijdewijn, J. d. R., Bakker, E., & ICCT Policy Brief. (2015). Pathways of foreign fighters: Policy options and their (un) intended consequences (p. 5). The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
Roberts, A. (2014). Terrorism research: Past, present, and future. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(1), 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610x.2014.976011.
Sageman, M. (2004). Understanding terror networks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sageman, M. (2014). The stagnation in terrorism research. Terrorism and Political Violence, 26(4), 565–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.895649.
Schlaffer, E., & Kropiunigg, U. (2015). Can mothers challenge extremism? Women without Borders/SAVE. Retrieved from http://www.women-without-borders.org/files/downloads/CAN_MOTHERS_CHALLENGE_EXTREMISM.pdf.
Schwartz, S. J. (2005). A new identity for identity research: Recommendations for expanding and refocusing the identity literature. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20(3), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558405274890.
Sperber, M. (1983). Sieben Fragen zur Gewalt. Leben in dieser Zeit (4th ed.). München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Stone, M. H. (2011). The meaning of life and Adler’s use of fictions. Journal of Individual Psychology, 67(1), 13–30.
Weine, S., Henderson, S., Shanfield, S., Legha, R., & Post, J. (2013). Building community resilience to counter violent extremism. Democracy and Security, 9(4), 327–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/17419166.2013.766131.
Williams, M. J., & Lindsey, S. C. (2013). A social psychological critique of the Saudi terrorism risk reduction initiative. Psychology, Crime & Law, 20(2), 135–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2012.749474.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kropiunigg, U. (2020). Mothers’ Agency As an Alternative to the War on Terror. In: Akhgar, B., Wells, D., Blanco, J. (eds) Investigating Radicalization Trends. Security Informatics and Law Enforcement. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25436-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25436-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25435-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25436-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)