A Future for the Young: Options for helping Middle Eastern Youth Escape the Trap of Radicalization

Research Summary

q       The report presents the suggestions of the conference sponsored by RAND as a part of its initiatives for Middle East Youth.

q       The vital focus of the conference is to analyze the background and reasons behind Middle East youth entering the Jihadist groups and the ways of preventing or disengaging them from such interests.

q       The conference explored on the hypothesis that youth recruitment into jihadist extremist groups can be viewed in terms of their vulnerability to fringe movements, such as left wing terrorism, the neo-Nazi movement, street gangs and cults.

q       The factors analyzed were the causes that motivate the youth into fringe movements, the background of the youth who are vulnerable, what makes their loyalty to such groups falter, how to facilitate such factors and help them withdraw from fringe movements and enter into the main stream of the society.

q       The report highlights the competitive alternatives that might prevent young people from being drawn into fringe movements, the ways of diminishing the appeal and glamour of radical engagement and the strategies to exploit the inconsistencies found in the vehicles of radical propaganda.

q       The key part of the report contains certain vital inputs to benefit from the resources available within families and communities to prevent radicalization and facilitate integration of youth under troubled social and political circumstances.

q       The three contemporary issues focused in the report are Diaspora radicalization, jihadist recruitment in the Islamic world, and the Iraqi insurgency. In addition, it also draws on the previous issues of inner city street gangs, the Baader Meinhof gang, and the IRA.

q       The outcome of the detailed analysis in the report proposes certain most important future research directions including multidisciplinary issues and collaborative tools.

q       The significant suggestions of the report comprise measures to work for positive youth development in a way that it helps both young people and their communities. This includes providing opportunities for collective activity and civic engagement.

q       The significant value addition in the report is the policy implications section with several suggested programs to work in the lines proposed by the report.

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