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Talking to terrorists: What drives young people to become foreign fighters for ISIS and other terrorist groups and what can be done in response
- Source: Freedom from Fear, Volume 2016, Issue 11, Aug 2016, p. 24 - 28
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- 01 Aug 2016
Abstract
The draw for young people to join a terrorist group has never been as strong as it is today. I know because I have spent over a decade interviewing over four hundred terrorists around the world and, in the case of suicide bombers who are already dead, interviewing their family members, close associates and even the hostages they held. My questions always centered on what put these (mostly young) people on the terrorist trajectory. Could their movement along this trajectory have been prevented? Once on the trajectory, could they have been moved back off it by some sort of intervention?
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