The Terror Research Dilemma
Can the social sciences provide any actionable insight into counterterror operations?
The claim
Twenty years of counterterrorism research still cannot say what drives a person to violence, and the reason is structural.
After 9/11 the national security enterprise created an unprecedented demand for counterterrorism knowledge, and policy pushed research into an unchecked expansionary period. More than twenty years later, the social sciences still cannot say clearly what leads radicalized individuals and groups to violence.
“A myriad of competing and untestable models, individual-level personality predictive failures, and chronic statistical problems — residing on top of foundational flaws.”