Can you ever de-radicalize the extremist?

How do young people get ‘radicalized’ and transform into terrorists? This has perplexed governments for the past decade and, despite the investment of huge sums, it is still not possible to draw up a reliable profile of a budding terrorist.

The World Today Updated 30 September 2020 1 minute READ

Alan Philps

Former Editor, The World Today, Communications and Publishing

In our cover story Sarah Marks and Daniel Pick explore the radicalized mind, going back to the 1950s when the West was convulsed by the fear of communist ‘brainwashing’. They conclude that easy assumptions about mind control will never make good policy.

Away from the news spotlight, Cleo Paskal looks at France’s new commitment to the South Pacific, until recently seen as ‘the edge of the map’ but now emerging as ‘the new strategic front line between Asia and the Americas’.

It is a brave analyst who looks beyond the blood and bombs of the Middle East to sketch out what a more stable regional order might look like. This is what Wadah Khanfar does, arguing that the basis must be democracy not the chimera of ‘authoritarian stability’.

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