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Battlefield of the Mind

A look at how terrorist groups radicalize and mobilize civilians for nefarious acts

Dr. Malkanthi Hettiarachchi. Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Terrorist groups continually hone their skills in the art of manipulation.

They project the face of the victim to sympathizers, the face of the aggressor to the perceived enemy and the face of the rescuer to their own vulnerable community.

Pioneering psychiatrist Stephen Karpman originally used these images to analyze dysfunctional human interactions. Today, similar components can be identified in terrorism.

Philippine military personnel sit near high-powered firearms at a military camp in Cotabato, on the southern island of Mindanao, in February 2015. Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels returned the firearms that they took during a firefight with police commandos.
Philippine military personnel sit near high-powered firearms at a military camp in Cotabato, on the southern island of Mindanao, in February 2015. Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels returned the firearms that they took during a firefight with police commandos.

Terrorist group members identify with all three aspects and switch between these roles, thereby maintaining the conflict. Therefore, it is not surprising that these groups, by projecting these images, win the support of the populace even in communities battling terrorism. Caught up in the projected image and message, actors such as activists, rights groups and nongovernmental organizations can shift in the direction of sympathizing, romanticizing and even advocating for terrorist groups. Countermessaging has to be creative to reach these different audiences.

MOLDING A TERRORIST

Terrorists are not born but cultivated. The transformation of a civilian into a terrorist happens due to a number of factors and requires a multifaceted response. Terrorist groups need a powerful emotive narrative to influence the community. Depending on the resonance of the message, whether it is emotion-focused, attraction-focused or blended, the community produces potential recruits. Some join the group as members, while others remain supporters and sympathizers. Recruits are groomed into terrorism through indoctrination and training. Members develop an identity linked to the group and a sense of responsibility. The member experiences power, dignity and significance in the eyes of the community as a defender of the cause; develops self-efficacy, a belief in his or her own ability to carry out duties required to redress grievances; and is able to morally justify the use of violence.

The member is sustained within the group when mentored into its subculture. When mobilized to carry out violent activities, the individual becomes a valued member of the group and gains significance within the organization. The member then gains the respect of the community, peers and leaders and becomes self-motivated. He or she goes on to develop greater self-efficacy with each operation carried out and becomes further celebrated and entrenched within the group.

THE NARRATIVE

Terrorist groups have a foundation narrative. They exploit grievances and develop an emotive story woven with discrimination, subjugation, occupation and suffering caused by the enemy. The narrative heightens imminent threats and risks to community members by exposing them to selected incidents directly or vicariously. A sense of urgency is evoked, propelling individuals to act against the “enemy.” As the conflict evolves, an ever-increasing number of injustices are added to continue to justify the need for violence.

Events are sequenced to form a powerful narrative to demonize the enemy and justify violence. The images are sequenced to evoke emotions.

The messages vary depending on the target audience. All these actions help to generate a vibrant array of emotive images that enhance the narrative and buttress the ideology of violence.

UNDERSTANDING RADICALIZATION

Radicalization occurs when an individual’s beliefs become extreme. Of grave concern is when that radicalization turns into violent action. All terrorist groups formulate an ideology through which the narrative is put into action, enabling them to mobilize their membership. Ideology is a set of beliefs to which the individual subscribes based on political, religious, social or historical narratives.

Counterterrorism initiatives focused on depleting the supply of recruits and funding could minimize the operational capability of terrorists. The kinetic response to terrorism is a familiar and essential aspect in reducing the immediate threat, while intelligence gathering is invaluable in dismantling active and potential threats.

Engaging in the “battlefield of the mind” is an equally important and highly skilled task that requires a psychological approach to dismantling the ideology that locks the mind into legitimizing violence. It is essential to engage with the terrorist to identify thoughts and beliefs and facilitate critical thinking. Cognitive strategies to build rapport, overcome resistance and access thoughts and beliefs in a nonthreatening manner will help identify errors or distortions in thinking. Using the Socratic method of questioning to explore alternative responses to violence-justifying narratives and question established beliefs helps delegitimize the need for violence.

Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation program is one of the few that takes a holistic approach to the rehabilitation and reintegration of the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorists. The program was managed by the military and conducted by more than 40 private and public sector partnerships. The initiative started in 2008 and was formalized in 2009.

Today, Sri Lanka has reintegrated more than 12,200 former LTTE members into the community.

SUSTENANCE AND MOBILIZATION

The LTTE was one of the world’s most ruthless terrorist groups until it was defeated by Sri Lankan security forces in 2009. It developed proactive and reactive methods for retaining its membership. Training included lectures on the narrative for a separate state, mentorship, the flow of disinformation and misinformation, reframing the narrative, anger generated over members who died in battle, celebrating suicide attacks, a terrorist leader venerated as a demigod, salaries and benefits that sustained the fighters’ families, extensive punishments and incarceration of those who attempted to leave the group, rewards and martyrdom for suicide attacks, projecting ongoing threats to the cause, and predicting imminent victory over the enemy.

Each successful attack motivated the membership to aspire for similar victories, leading more people to join. With each loss, the membership was further motivated, aspiring to avenge the dead and to encourage more people to join.

MORAL JUSTIFICATION OF VIOLENCE

Moral justification of violence is essential to suppress social norms and to be able to engage in terrorist activity. Morally justifying attacks on civilians reduces the cognitive dissonance and frees the member to celebrate the attack. The use of violence is legitimized.

The moral justifications crafted by the leadership are backed historically, religiously and politically. This allows the members to conduct attacks without any moral qualms and become further motivated and a beacon for others to follow. Most terrorists would believe that their actions are justified in pursuit of a higher goal. This allows terrorists to morally disengage from the norms of society. They can spare themselves blame for their detrimental conduct by converting their harmful acts into moral ones in their minds. The members gradually become desensitized to violence, and the value for life diminishes.

Language plays a vital role in moral justification. Dehumanizing the individual, using language that sanitizes actions, minimizing consequences, displacing blame and group decision-making allows the individual to disengage from taking responsibility.

CONCLUSION

The psychological transformation of an individual — from an upstanding member of the community to a terrorist — is a result of indoctrination into a violence-justifying ideology. Terrorist indoctrination is geared to grip the mind and harness the skills of individuals to inflict terror into the heart of the enemy and civil society. Communities are indoctrinated and radicalized to serve as a resource base for terror networks. Nefarious groups depend on the motivated few from the community for their survival. These structures are made functional by a group’s leaders, members and support base that operate in local and distant spheres. The motivations are many when joining a group, but it is the ongoing indoctrination and training that ensures mobilization. The key to deradicalization is engaging, understanding and dismantling the justifications for violence used at the individual, group and community levels. Puncturing the arguments and attacking justifications used to recruit, radicalize and mobilize. Using the same media for countermessaging to create doubt, which helps to reframe the grievance narrative in realistic terms.

To dismantle the terrorist ideology, the justifications and legitimization of terror tactics, the psychological approach must focus on reaching the hearts and minds of terrorists and their recruiting communities from within.

The real work of counterterrorism initiatives must include understanding the process of radicalization and what works in de-radicalization. Counterterrorism officials must use this knowledge to formulate a strategy for “messaging” and “countermessaging.” Messages targeted at countering narratives, justifying violence and legitimizing the actions of terrorist groups need to be factual, realistic and delivered using methods that are equally or more powerful, emotive and attractive. If the messaging space is not occupied by nation states, nonstate actors will occupy and manipulate this space, which is a powerful opinion maker and opinion changer.

This space is in the mind. This space cannot be protected or defended with conventional weapons of war but by adopting a psychological approach to techniques used by terrorist groups and delivered using effective communication strategies. Innovative thinking and creative strategies that resonate with the masses are required to engage in the battlefield of the mind.

The author is a clinical psychologist who works in psycho-social skills training and rehabilitation within secure and community settings.

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