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Modeling Radicalization and Violent Extremism

Part of the Springer Proceedings in Complexity book series (SPCOM)

Abstract

Given public anxiety about radicalization and violent extremism, it is not surprising that these topics have grabbed the attention of so many scholars in recent years. However, some have expressed concern over the fact that only a few studies in this relatively new field contain empirical data or systematic data analysis or develop causal models of the mechanisms generating these phenomena. We believe that computational modeling and simulation techniques can make a significant contribution to this scientific literature and eventually provide new tools for improving policy analysis. Here we briefly describe (1) an integrative theory of violent extremism proposed by Kruglanski and colleagues and (2) an agent-based model that instantiates this theory in a computational architecture.

Keywords

  • Agent-based model
  • Radicalization
  • Violent extremism
  • Kruglanski

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Fig. 41.1

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Acknowledgments

The authors are members of the “Modeling Religion in Norway” (MODRN) project, which is funded by The Research Council of Norway (grant #250449).

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Correspondence to F. LeRon Shults .

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Shults, F.L., Gore, R. (2020). Modeling Radicalization and Violent Extremism. In: Verhagen, H., Borit, M., Bravo, G., Wijermans, N. (eds) Advances in Social Simulation. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_41

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