Marc Sageman and the bunch of guys Flashcards
Who is Marc Sageman?
- A former CIA officer, who was sent to Afghanistan
- Has written two books, we focus on “leaderless Jihad”
What are the normal assumptions about terrorists, which Sagemans analysis shows are untrue? How does he reach this conclusion? What are they instead then?
- Poor families, naive teenagers, mental disorders, low level of edication, criminal record, sexually frustrated.
- By analysing the trials of 19 terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks.
- Conclusion: Terrorism is political violence.
What are the four steps of radicalization according to Marc Sageman? An what do they mean?
- Sense of moral outrage: People are angry, because something have happened in their life.
- Interpretation: They use islam to handle this anger.
- Reinforcement: When you have gained friends in the mosque you reinforce each others ideas. Dietrary reasons: If you all eat halal for instance, it is easier to have other like-minded mulslim friends.
- Political violence through networks
What are the three wawes of terrorism according to Marc Sageman?
- First: Osama Bin Laden. Fighted Soviets in the 80’ies. Made Al Queada.
- Second: Admired the firs wave. Joined Al Queada. Got radicalised in the west. 90’ies, before 9/11.
- Third: The rise of leaderless Jihad. Home-grown terrorists. People recruited over internet. Post-Iraqe generation. Wants to be heroes.
What is the main idea of Marc Sageman?
- Radicalization = a bottom-up proces.
- Most people get radicalized in another country than the one they were born in (3/4). They are lonely and in their seek for companionship they go to the mosque, and in their search for a group, they end up joining radical ones.
What makes people go to the mosque according to Marc Sageman and what happens here? (First step in being radicalized)
- They are skilled workers and well-educated. But when they arrive in western cities, they feel marginalized and excluded from the upper-class. They get lonely and nostalgic.
- Therefor, they go to the mosque to find like-minded people. In the mosque, they get support for their feeling of exclusion and are told that the surrounding society is racist and treat them bad.
- After this, they start searching for a terror-group.
What is the role of ideology according to Marc Sageman?
- Ideology is not why people get radicalized. Lonelyness is, terrorists are intitially just looking for friends and company.
How much should we fear ISIS according to Rizzoli?
- Hard to say, since out culture is accustomed of the ”one person killed is one to many approach”. All human lifes are important. From a political point of view, however, it makes an enormeous difference how many people are killed.
Why is it difficult to measure how many people ISIS kills according to Rizzoli?
- Because what counts as ISIS?
a. Carried out by ISIS
b. Carried out by autonomous cells
c. Carried out by lone wolfs (trained and untrained!)
What is a trained and an untrained lone wolf?
- Trained: Have been living with the terror organisation – for instance been in Syria to learn from ISIS.
- Untrained: Carry out the terror-attack by himself, have not received training. Might claim loyality to a specific group, but have not had any contact with them.
What is an autonomous cell?
- A cell (usually composed of friends and siblings) who claim loyality to a terror group but do not receive orderf from a group.
What are the five variables you should take into account when analysing a terror attack?
- Number of commando members
- Number of victims
- Kind of weapons used
- The warfare strategy
- Nationality of the perpretrators
