Michael Jacobson is a senior fellow in The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
Articles & Testimony
As efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda and its affiliates continue, the U.S. government has slowly come to realize that military force alone cannot defeat radical extremism. Although al-Qaeda's ideas and those of like-minded groups must be challenged, it is clear that a single, overarching counternarrative cannot be expected to work across the board. To determine what might be effective among both the hardened individuals already in terrorist organizations and those well along the path to radicalization, it is useful to look at examples of people who have voluntarily walked away from these organizations. By analyzing these changes in perspective, governments can more effectively craft counterradicalization messages.
