toolkit to analyze emerging radical phenomena · toolkit to analyze emerging radical phenomena...

Toolkit to analyze emerging radical phenomena

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With the financial support from the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union. European Commission – Directorate- General Home Affairs

INTERNATIONAL

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A mulTisemAnTic perspecTive


A mulTisemAnTic perspecTive

INTERNATIONAL

TOOLKIT TO ANALYZE EMERGING RADICAL PHENOMENA TRANSVERSAL BRIDGE – A multisemantic perspective

With the financial support from the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union. European Commission – Directorate- General Home Affairs 5

1. Abstract:

This report serves as guidance text to be used alongside the additional dissemination of the TransRad project and not as an unfaltering account of the reasons for the varying degrees of radicalisation. Instead, this report details the methodological approach towards collecting and representing multiple interviews, and explaining similarities and differences between the many individuals, and their divergent political affiliations. The underlying realist approach is used in to explain the Contextual Background as well as the Selected Cloud Expansion Walkthrough process.

2. Project Background:

TransRad is a two-year European Commission, Directorate General Home Affairs funded project addressing the emerging threat of transversal terrorist alliances for European nations and communities. The project aims to detect and profile the emerging threat of transversal European radical groups and raise the awareness of institutional bodies and civil society at large on the risks potentially connected to these ‘radical bridges’. This project seeks to provide a new analytical grid to underpin the design of a strategic approach to counter these new and emerging threats. This research activity will study sources from academic literature, police interview reports, court proceedings, prison records, intelligence agency reports, government assessments and other open sources in order to build a richer picture throughout Member States with regard to the connections among the different groups, individuals and narratives.Led by Agenfor Italalia, the TransRad consortium includes; Guardia Civil, the Czech

Technical University, the European Institute in Bulgaria, Sheffield Hallam University, and, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, providing a rich mix of practitioner and academic expertise.

3. Contextual Background: A Complex Past:

The collapse of the Soviet Union marked a distinct historical epoch in modern European history. The final December days of the USSR where preceded by years of increasing pressure for Eastern European states to regain independence and devolution from the central Soviet government. The symbolic demolition of the Berlin wall, and the subsequent years in which President Gorbachev moved towards cooperation, and domestic reform alongside the West, ushered in a new global political structure. The supposed ideological and economical triumph of the United States manifested itself in a unipolar power system, with American hegemony unrivalled.1 Matters of traditional 'High Politics'2 which concerned themselves with the zero-sum-games3 of relative survival, stability, and sustainability, began to give way to 'Low Politics'; which concerned themselves with factors other

1 Waltz, K., Structural Realism After the Cold War., International Security Journal., Vol. 25., No. 01., (Online: MIT Press Jour-nals) pp.4-41. Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/016228800560372#.Vk7xXbfhC70 (Acces-sed online: 20/11/2015)

2 Beitz, C. R., Political Theory and International Relations., Ca-nadian Journal of Political Science., Vol. 14., Iss. 01., (Online: Princetone University Press., March 1981) pp.192-193. Avai-lable at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=6379280&jid=CJP&volumeId=14&issueId=01&aid=6379276 (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

3 von Nueman, J., Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour., (NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 1944)


With the financial support from the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union. European Commission – Directorate- General Home Affairs6



and assault rifle violence.11 The current situation in modern Europe appears far from the idealist hopes of world peace following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The realist picture of the anarchical global system is reinforced with modern globalization; individuals are increasingly exposed to disparate cultures, beliefs and religions. Modernity is now layered; identities draw upon a collection of international principles, it is not the idealist; multi-dimensional liberal-democratic market as the Bush and Blair administrations would have had us believe.12 Following Putin's declarations of admiration for the Soviet Union, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are now seeing a return to the bipolar system of competition, (or considering the rise of China; a multipolar system), however the chaotic inclusion of terrorism in the world system is more prevalent than ever. Indeed, with two significant attacks on Paris in 2015 alone national tensions appear to be at breaking point.13 European involvement in the Middle East has fuelled terrorism and an unprecedented scale of refugees, not seen by Europe since WW2. Subsequently linked to this is; the rise of Far Right in supposedly liberal and cosmopolitan states: Indeed, parties such as UKIP in 2014 have been regarded a 'working class phenomenon'

11 Seierstad, A., One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway., (London, UK: Virago, 2015)

12 Nairn, T., James, P., Global Matrix; Nationalism, Globalism and State-Terrorism., (London, UK: Pluto Press, 2005) pp.6-7.

13 Alpert, M., It's Not Just Paris: From nigeria to Egypt, 10 of 2015's worst Terror Attacks., (Online: Foreign Poli-cy, 16th November 2015) Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/16/its-not-just-paris-from-nigeria-to-egypt-ten-of-2015s-worst-terror-attacks/ (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

in the UK.14 Yet the power and legitimacy of UKIP is overshadowed by many other European parties (whom are later explored) which hold a share of power and authenticity through proportional representation. The growing popularity of parties such as the French National Front, and, the German NPD simultaneously hide and encourage genuine Fascist desires.15

Additionally, the existence and legitimacy of the European Union has increasingly taken fire, not only from the Eurasian Union states, but also from the within, as member state populations become increasingly unsatisfied and divided over continuing membership, particularly under the heavy stress of the Greek financial collapse. Indeed, the faint Balkan echoes of independence and decentralisation from the Soviet regime, can now be heard at different volumes throughout Europe and are a particular point of discussion for radical groups contesting the EU.The TransRad projected has collected a series of interviews with identified radicals and experts for collection, aggregation and processing. A total of 25 individual transcripts from nine different EU countries have been collected for review. The following provides a clear overview of the interview integration into an interactive word cloud information tool. Additionally this report will draw upon, and expand in detail upon several examples from the series of individual word clouds, comparing, contrasting and evaluating the

14 Ford, R., Goodwin, M., Revolt on the Right: Explaining Su-pport for the Radical Right in Britain., (Oxon, UK: Routledge Press, 2014) pp.270-272.

15 Herbele, R., Analysis of a Neo-Fascist Party: The NPD., Polity Journal., Vol. 03., No. 01., (Online: JSTOR, Autumn 1970) Avai-lable at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3234157?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

than national security. Throughout Europe states focused attention onto domestic issues. With the relinquished hold of the USSR on Eastern Europe, new states were born from the division of countries such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, immediately causing domestic issues of ethnic, individual, collective and national identity. Western Europe faced mass immigration following the freeing up of border security and integration with East Germany. The post-Cold War integration period was a volatile one. The Eastern Bloc was a complicated mixture of nations, states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia wished to reunite with the West and gain liberal-democratic policies, where as other states appeared more loyal to old Soviet practices.4 However, such observations themselves are broad over-simplifications, internally Eastern states consisted of confused populations, divided by ethnic groups, political views, religious beliefs, and national-utopian views. Furthermore, many of the central European populations had lived the Cold War divided from families and friends on the other side of the Berlin Wall.5 Over time, the seeming solidarity of the Western European Union began to falter. The united Christian-liberal-democratic ideologies of the key Western players had worked well against the common enemy of the USSR, however the 1990's saw a

4 Bradley, B., European Unity in the Post Cold War Era., (Onli-ne: International Relations Students, February 2012) Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2012/02/22/the-cold-war-may-have-ended-but-europe-is-still-just-as-divided/ (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

5 Pidd, H., Berlin Wall 50 years on: families divided, loved ones lost., (Online: The Guardian, 12th August 2011) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/12/berlin-wall-50-years-families-divided (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

repeated rise in racism and the Far Right in response to mass immigration.6 Indeed, previous considerations of Low Politics, such as immigration and xenophobia, began to make their way into matters of National Security. This culminated in the East with the Yugoslav wars with; war in Slovenia in 1991, through to the insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia in 2002.7 Meanwhile in the West, a series of religious and politically motivated terrorist attacks ushered in an era of asymmetric warfare.8 The series of attacks, including upon London9 and France10 in 1994, gradually escalated in severity and complexity in the following decade. Furthermore, Middle Eastern terrorism and immigration into Europe exacerbated intolerance and racism leading to a diverse plethora of radical groups also utilising violence and terror tactics. Neo-nazi, nationalistic, and socialist radicals have inflicted notorious civilian attacks and social disruptions through terrorism, from the 1980's onwards. Most recently, the Norwegian Right-Wing extremist; Anders Breivik killed 68 people through explosive

6 Solomos, J., Wrench, J., Racism and Migration in Western Europe., The Canadian Journal of Sociology., Vol. 21., No. 02., (Online: Spring, 1996) Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3341995?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

7 Finlan, Alastair., The Collapse of Yugoslavia 1991-1999., (Oxford, UK, Osprey, 2004)

8 Staten, C, L., Asymmetric Warfare, the Evolution and Devo-lution of Terrorism; The Coming Challenge For Emergency and National Security Forces., (Online: Emergency Response and Research Institute, April, 1998) Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.372.61&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

9 See: The London 1994 Israeli Embassy Attack - 20 Injured.

10 See: Air France Flight 8969 Hijacking - 7 Killed, 25 injured.





Insurgency

“A general overarching concept that refers to a conflict between a government and an out group or opponent in which the latter uses both political resources and violence to change, reformulate, or uphold the legitimacy of one or more of four key aspects of politics” (O´Neill, 2002).

These aspects of politics are:“(1) The integrity of the borders and composition of the nation state, (2) the political system, (3), the authorities in power, and (4) the policies that determine who gets what in societies” (O’Neill, 2002, as cited in Taber, 2002: VIII).

Insurgent activity is a form of “movement - a political effort with a specific aim”.

Later, O’Neill (2005) gives his revision of the term insurgency: “Insurgency may be defined as a struggle between a non-ruling group and the ruling authorities in which the non-ruling group consciously uses political resources (e.g.,

organizational expertise, propaganda, and demonstrations) and violence to destroy, reformulate, or sustain the basis of legitimacy of one or more aspects of politics”.

Department of Defence Joint Publication (JP) 1-02, used in counterinsurgency doctrine, is still based on the dominant American thinking that insurgencies are revolutionary movements. Hence, JP 1-02 defines the term insurgency as:

“An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict” (Department of Defence, 2004).

In his paper, The Basics of Counterinsurgency, R. Scott Moore argues that this characterization has changed little over the past several decades, and fails to reflect the wider scope and complexity of insurgencies today, especially their protracted and transnational nature.

Moore states that the term insurgency is used interchangeably and imprecisely with

meaning and importance of key words. The perceptions of each interview word cloud will be challenged and validated with academic and realist literature in an attempt to identify alternative motives and ideologies. Such actions are carried out in the hope to better enhance Western understandings and awareness of emerging dangerous and disruptive radical trends amongst a background of increasing interconnectivity and interdependence.

4. Conceptual framework

It is not our aim to get a consensus between hundreds of definitions that are used. We only try to explain a basic conceptual framework in order to focus the project’s toolkit as an instrument to analyze emerging radical phenomena in their complexity and multidimensionality.

The existence of multiple definitions of each concept used in this toolkit makes necessary to define those that are going to be fundamental in the development and comprehension of the enclosed analysis.

Political Violence

When individuals or groups resort to violence to attain change of a political nature, we speak of political violence. As Van den Haag established, “violence only becomes political when used instrumentally to influence or control the distribution of power and the future actions of people”. Individual violent acts are political when it has such social claims; group violence is at all times political to all intents and purposes (Van den Haag, 1972: 60-61). The sociologist Buijs focused on defining and elaborating upon three central aspects

of political violence that can be used to obtain a typology: “the instruments that are used, the aims that the perpetrators aspire to, and the effects that are brought about” (Buijs, 2001: 9).In the words of Gurr (1970: 3-4) political violence consists on “collective attacks within a political community against a political regime”.Political violence is a broad concept that works from citizens to states, but from states to citizens too. Because of that, we can talk about (Schmid, 2011):- State political violence:o Violent repression for the control of

power.o Political justice oMass arrestso Banningo Deportation o Assassination oMassacres o State terrorism (torture, death squads,

disappearances, concentration camps) o State sponsored terrorismo Counter-insurgency - Non state actors: o Insurgencyo TerrorismoWarfareo Vigilanteso Drug dealers’ insurgency

Political action and relation with violence and no violence





terrorism:- Insurgency is a movement. Terrorism and

warfare are means. Terrorism can be one of the actions of an insurgency.

- Insurgency does not look for terror; it aims territorial control or change of the political or social order.

- The insurgency seeks support from sections of the population.

- Insurgency acts against the State and its representatives. Terrorism act against no combatant, civilians.

Insurgency is a civilian attacking their own government with the intent to overthrow it. Terrorism is a civilian attacking other civilians with the intent to frighten them into a specific action.

Although they have been criticised in their way to explain the terrorism concept, Weinberg, Pedahzur and Hirsch-Hoefler (2004: 786) suggest distinctiveness within terrorism phenomena “terrorism is a politically-motivated tactic involving the threat or use of force or violence in which the pursuit of publicity plays a significant role”.

Radicalism and extremism

In recent years, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 and the attacks in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005, several national strategies against extremism and radicalisation have appeared which assume that extremism and radicalisation are part of the path that leads to terrorism.

Schmid (2013, p.86), after analysing a variety of definitions, uses a negative approach (what terrorism is not) and distinguishes the contested elements and the necessity of consensus. He proposes a revised academy

consensus definition:

Terrorism refers on the one hand to a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting mainly civilians and non-combatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on various audiences and conflict parties.

While several problems arise when defining “terrorism”, these are intensified when trying to define “extremism” or “radicalisation” despite trying to do it with a key adjective: violent.

The UK´s Prevention Strategy states that radicalisation is “the process by which people come to support violent extremism and, in some cases, join terrorist groups” (Home Office, 2009, p.10-11). So, in this case, radicalisation would be directly linked to the support of violence or terrorism. The European Commission uses the concept of “violent radicalisation”, defined as “the phenomenon of people embracing opinions, views and ideas which could lead to acts of terrorism” (European Commission 2005, p.2). By using the term “would” in the definition, a problem occurs in order to apply it. It generates ambiguity, as it directly relates the radicalism with the preposition to commit terrorist acts. It does not consider that is the prequel of other types of behaviour, such as political activism, or other types of actions. These actions can be no contentious, neither related with terrorism.

In the academic field, several authors have tried to define radicalisation and solve

“irregular warfare, unconventional warfare, revolutionary warfare, guerrilla warfare and even terrorism” (Moore, 2007).

Moore states that an insurgency is “a group that seeks radical change of the existing political or social order through the use of violence and political upheaval” (Moore, 2007). It employs terrorism as one of the means to achieve its objectives. Terrorism is not, however, the primary focus of insurgent movements. Insurgencies focus more on their country’s political, economic and social elements, which, Moore explains, are at the “heart of the conflict, both its causes and its effects” (Moore, 2007). Based on his understanding of insurgencies, Moore offers the following expanded and refined definition of the term:

“An insurgency is a protracted violent conflict in which one or more groups seek to overthrow or fundamentally change the political or social order in a state or region through the use of sustained violence, subversion, social disruption, and political action” (Moore, 2007).

Means of action:- Subversion - Riots - Terrorism - Coup d’états - Propaganda- Other ways of non-violent political action:

demonstrations, social protests, civil disobedience, and boycotts…

Terrorism

Terrorism has been defined by the European Union's Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism of 2002 as “an intentional act

which may seriously damage a country or an international organisation, committed with the aim of seriously intimidating a population, unduly compelling a Government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act, seriously destabilizing or destroying fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures by means of attacks upon a person’s life, attacks upon the physical integrity of a person, kidnapping, hostage-taking, seizure of aircraft or ships, or the manufacture, possession or transport of weapons or explosives”.

While radicalism can pose a threat it is extremism, and particularly terrorism, that ought to be our main concern since it involves the active subversion of democratic values and the rule of law. In this sense violent radicalisation is to be understood as socialisation to extremism, which could manifest itself in terrorism (European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation) http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/20080500_cscp_report_vries.pdf

The revised academic consensus definition of terrorism (Schmid, 2011):

“Terrorism refers on the one hand to a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting mainly civilians and non-combatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on various audiences and conflict parties”.

Differences between insurgency and





6. Reject democratic principles based on popular sovereignty;

7. Reject equal rights for all, especially those of women and minorities;

8. Reject diversity and pluralism in favour of their preferred mono-culture society, e.g. a worldwide Islamic state;

9. Adhere to a (good-) ends-justify (-any)-means philosophy to achieve their goals;

10. Actively endorse and glorify the use of violence to fight what they consider “evil” and to reach their political objectives (e.g. in the form of jihad);

11. Show a propensity to engage in mass violence against actual and potential enemies when in power or when enjoying impunity;

12. Are single-minded, black-or-white thinkers who want to purify the world and demonise, debase and dehumanise their enemies in hate speech, characterising them as “inferior” and earmarking them, implicitly or explicitly, as expendable;

13. Subordinate individual freedoms to collective goals;

14. Refuse to engage in genuine (as opposed to tactical and temporal) compromises with the other side and ultimately seek to subdue or eliminate the enemy;

15. Exhibit intolerance to all views other than their own dogmatic one and express this in anger, aggressive behaviour and hate speech;

16. Exhibit fanaticism, portray themselves as threatened and embrace conspiracy theories without necessarily being irrational in their strategic choices;

17. Exhibit authoritarian, dictatorial or totalitarian traits;

18. Are unwilling to accept criticism and intimidate and threaten dissenters, heretics and critics with death;

19. Expect obedience to their demands

and commands rather than allowing to subject their views and policies to discussion even within their own group; and

20. Have fixed ideas and closed minds and believe there is only one truth – theirs. In its pursuit, they are often willing to face punishment or even death and sometimes actively seek martyrdom.

It could be interesting to identify what could be called “gateway organizations”, non-violent but acting as a previous phase in the radicalization process (i.e. Hizb-ut-Tahrir). Low intensity conflict (LIC)

According to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defence (as promulgated in the US Army Field Manual 100-20), the same definition using by the NATO, LIC is a:

“Political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below conventional wars and above the routine, peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies. Low intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of armed force. It is waged by a combination of means employing political, economic, informational and military instruments. Low intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in the Third World, but contain regional and global security implications”.

The definition used by The Army War College, also known as The College of Combat, in India gives us a definition which can be really useful for the objective of the present report:

“It is a politico-military confrontation be-

the existing problems. Moskalenko and McCauley (2010) introduce a distinction between activism (legal and non-violent political action) and radicalism (illegal and violent action). Schmid (2013) distinguishes between radicals (that could be violent or not, democratic or not) and extremists (who are never democratic). Radicals could be open-minded and extremists closed-minded. Bartlett and Miller (2012, p.) compare two phenomena: radicalisation that leads to violence (violent radicalisation) and radicalisation that does not lead to violence (non-violent radicalisation), pointing out that violent radicals are enemies of our democracies, but non-violent radicals might help us to counter violent radicalisation.

Schmid (2013, p.18), trying to give an inclusive definition, proposes: “an individual or collective process whereby, usually in a situation of political polarisation, normal practices of dialogue, compromise and tolerance between political actors and groups with diverging interests are abandoned by one or both sides in a conflict dyad in favour of a growing commitment to engage in confrontational tactics of conflict-waging.”

In the second part of the definition Schmid classifies the possible outcomes: “These can include either (i) the use of non violent pressure or coercion, (ii) various forms of political violence other than terrorism or (iii) acts of violent extremism in the form of terrorism and war crime” (Schmid, 2013, p.18). And finally, the author makes references to the process of radicalisation: the process is, on the side of rebel factions, generally accompanied by an ideological socialisation away from mainstream or status quo-oriented positions towards more

radical or extremist positions involving a dichotomous world view and the acceptance of an alternative focal point of political mobilization outside the dominant political order as the existing system is no longer recognised as appropriate or legitimate.

In order to know if a group is extremist, the model proposed by Schmid (EMI20) could be applied. While a few of these factors (a total of 20) from this list might be insufficient to identify extremist speech or correctly interpret extremist militancy, the presence of multiple factors lends weight to an assessment of an individual or group as being “extremist”. The more of these indicators that can be found in documents or action patterns of militants, the more likely they have to be considered “extremists” and as such need to be considered as serious threats to liberal-democratic societies.1. Situate themselves outside the

mainstream and reject the existing social, political or world order;

2. Seek to overthrow, with the help of a revolutionary vanguard, the political system in order to (re-)establish what they consider the natural order in society – whether this envisaged order be based on race, class, faith, ethnic superiority, or alleged tradition;

3. Are usually in possession of an ideological programme or action plan aimed at taking and holding communal or state power;

4. Reject or, when in power, subvert the liberal-democratic conception of the rule of law; use the political space provided by it to advance their cause in efforts to take state power;

5. Reject universal Human Rights and show a lack of empathy and disregard for rights of other than their own people;





government election or substitution through free and fair elections.

- The active participation of citizens in civic life and politics, having a voice in all those issues that affect their lives, directly or through representatives.

Activism

Although there are several definitions, we could define activism, integrating key characteristics of the concept, as “the use of direct and militant actions, from short to long-term, to achieve a result, usually a political or social change”.

The core elements of the concept are:

- Actors. Alex P. Schmid17 defines “activist” as “a member of a political movement who goes beyond subscribing to the goals of a programme, taking active steps to implement it”. Although individuals can lead “activism”, it is often done collectively through social movements.

- Actions: direct, militant, often confrontational and using vigorous campaigning, and as mentioned below usually collectively through social movements. “Activism” can occur in a myriad of ways and in a variety of forms18:

· Demanding solutions to contemporary problems through the taking of oppositional stances to mainstream policies. This is the type of campaigning activism that includes protests, strikes, demonstrations, marches, rallies, boycotts, propaganda, etc.

17 Schmid, A. P. (2013). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Researh. Routledge.

18 http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/

· Undertaking activism which manifests itself through the creation of alternatives to the dominant system through the construction of new ways of social behaviour. Examples of this would be housing and food cooperatives, social centres, worker cooperatives, new age travellers, squats etc. Collectives of people often carry out this sort of activism over long periods of time.

· Revolutionary activism that is concerned with fundamental change of society and its major institutions. This type of activism seeks to fundamentally change the dominant system to a new way of living and is not particularly concerned with reforms and piecemeal changes in the long term.

- Time. Usually developed collectively through campaigns, from short to long term, depending on the type of action.

- Results. The efforts and actions have clear objectives: to promote, impede, or direct social, political economic, legal or environmental change.

Hacktivism

Hacktivism, understood as technologic activism or practiced using the net, has widened the field of social action. The variety of actions that it includes is very wide, going from politic propaganda to counter-informative or subversive actions.

As Barandiaran said, hacktivism tries to bring techno-politic interaction tools and those that could be used for the same end closer to the population. Its ultimate goal is to question and even transform the social order, directing collective action towards a

tween the established authority (state) and organised group(s) of people with or without external assistance, beyond the scope of le-gitimate, route, peaceful contest/agitation. Being on the low end of the conflict spec-trum, it imposes an undefined restraint on the execution of military operation.”

Liquid society

According to the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, it would be a society characterized by individualism and privatization, where the relations that are established are transitory and temporal. It is a changing, uncertain society, which is more and more unpredictable. Thus, the behavior conditions of the members that form it change before they can adapt, causing a great contradiction and setting up values of huge volatility and relativism.

Some of the characteristics that are generated in this kind of society are of great importance for understanding attitudes, both individual and collective, which can be seen nowadays:- Bonds established among members

tend to be more and more fragile and provisional.

- Concern for economic well-being prevails.

- A great disaffection towards politics, the institutions in power and traditional ideologies is generated.

- By the same token, new generations, which are more and more prepared, assume or look for new values and identities as the ones considered as classic fall behind.

- These identities will be the ones to condition from affectionate relationships to new social movements or politics.

- Media reality shapes the social psyche, inducing politics to transform to its likeness.

- The search for singularity and individuality of each person collides then with the patterns set by society, which induce them to be genuine following the same rules, not only legal, but also behavioral rules, dressing rules, expression rules, etc.

- Consumption establishes then the rules, reducing the times in which we feel satisfied by the objects we possess.

- Tolerance towards this lifestyle reflects in a complete indifference towards those individuals who are out of the system, voluntarily or by force.

- The only certainty that the future provides is uncertainty.

Democracy

The term democracy, of Greek origin, means “rule by the (simple) people”. In wider terms, democracy can be understood as a substantive when naming a governmental system, as an adjective when referring to the characteristics attributable to it or as a belief, as the Cambridge Dictionary16 points out: “the belief in freedom and equality between people”.

In order for a governmental system to be seen as democratic, it must have four elements:- Preservation of human rights.- The existence of a rule of law that

guarantee equality before the law among all citizens.

- The existence of mechanisms that allow

16 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/democracy





commitment and cause, must be shared by the group, despite the diversity of them that could exist. That is, the criteria of membership can get to be very unstable, but they ultimately have to be mutually accepted by every member.

It is relevant to point out that their objectives, despite the traditional existing relationship, are not only politic, as they could also focus on economic, cultural or any other kind of interest.

The existence of the collective identity makes it necessary to identify specific objectives and actions. Those citizens that simply support, share or legitimize the movement’s action are not a part of it.

“The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements” (Snow, Soule and Kries 2004), a reference work in the study of social movements, defined them as authorities acting with some degree of organization and continuity, regardless of the institutional channels for the purpose of challenging the authority or pressure it.

Social conflict is a natural part of human society, has accompanied the evolution throughout history, and often has been recognized as necessary for progress, social justice and equality rights and freedoms. When Rosa Parks refused in 1955 to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of a bus, she lit the wick of social protest and American society was shaken. He ended up in jail. But later the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that racial segregation on buses was contrary to the Constitution. Today, fortunately, very few people would think she should be punished. Therefore we must not be afraid to talk about conflict as a

natural phenomenon in modern societies. It is only one of the cases mentioned, to avoid commenting best known cases, as Gandhi or Mandela.

According to Mario Diani (1992, 2003, 2004, 2004 Diani and Bison) social movements are consistent social processes in different mechanisms through which the actors involved in political action:- Engage in troubled relationships with

clearly identified opponents.- They relate to dense informal networks.- They share a distinct collective identity.

All modern studies, point to a profound change in recent years, adopting the concept of "new social movements", developed from the 1960s, with a significant middle class social base and not based solely on the workers' struggle or nationalist. Global current movements, claiming for global justice, materialize their demands in concrete ways, sometimes local, sometimes international and global in others.

Grievances

A grievance20 is “the feeling of a real or imagined cause for complaint over something believed to be wrong or unfair”.

The core elements of the definition are:§A feeling. An emotional state or reaction.§A real or imagined cause. The cause can

be an injury, an offense, an outrage, an atrocity, damage, a mistake, a wrong decision or an injustice.

§A complaint. The complaint could be

20 Interesting link of Obama, about the need to address griev-ances http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/18/obama-we-have-to-address-grievances-terrorists-exploit/

non-conventional political participation.

Its actions are justified by a socialization of knowledge, transparency and technological cooperation framework in order to create more democratic and open societies. Even though they have contributed to the birth of new idiosyncratic movements of the net, which boosts self-management in communications, like the free or open-source software movements, its aim is to articulate the already existing protest movements, rather than generating new ones.

This articulation aims to provide them with the necessary knowledge and tools that allow them to have a virtual infrastructure. Even though the widening of communications and the message spreading that it causes cannot be limited to classic borders of physical spaces, one of its main goals is still local actions/effects.

Users of this kind of practices themselves have also coined the term electronic civil disobedience 19 in order to identify and encourage social protests that take place in the streets, in this case, in a virtual setting

19 Concept coined by the activists “Critical Art Ensemble”.

Its usage represents an emerging social action, as the global population with access to new technologies and internet increases with each passing day.

Social Movements

Starting from the elements highlighted by Mario Diani (2004) and Della Porta (2011), social movements refer to those social processes in which its agents, the citizens, engage to commit collective actions: - They carry out conflictive actions, as they

oppose or encourage changes regarding the established structures.

- Their opponents and/or objectives are clearly identified and they are shared.

- They have contact through informal networks regularly. Isolated events of collective actions would not be defining of the existence of a social movement itself.

- They share a collective identity that differentiates them from other movements or groups.

It is an identity that tends to fade when we talk about social movements that include several activisms under the same structure, though it can coexist. However, in order to talk about social movement, the sense,





METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH





2. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Information about groups acting in Europe, and related to the objectives of the project

How: §Open Sources.§Interviews

Collect and register in a templates specially designed for this purpose with different levels to organise macro, meso and micro information of each case study, for social movements and for violent groups.

It could be useful to consider characteristics of the research on social movements (Diani, Della Porta). The study of social movements, as a part of a social science, can aid in the study of insurgencies and terrorism. Some of the points that could be considered and used in the research of insurgent groups are:a) The degree of organization. Some

movements are structured, organized, with a centralized leadership. But on the other hand, others have features of decentralization, network formed as well by a multitude of actors who take autonomous decisions, formal minimum degree, without a centralized communication. In this case the forms of coordination are very informal, through meetings in public places, cultural centres or alternative. As there are many intermediate forms of organization, such as neighbourhood groups, cultural associations or even professional groups.

Scott (1981) distinguishes between rational (aimed at a clear finish, with a defined structure), natural (same interest, but low level of structure) and open systems (multiple interests rather sums of interest groups). Apart of this, the network model

of organization is quite characteristic of social movements: independent members who can act coordinated within a framework of autonomy and flexibility.

b) Their national or transnational character. Multitude of local, regional groups, including ad - hoc created for a campaign, which bind beyond its borders with a common goal. A clear case was the manifestation Global Change on October 15, 2011, held in many cities and countries, based on the links between movements “indignados” from Iceland, Madrid or Occupy Wall Street in the United States.

c) Its habitat in the digital world and the physical realm. Technology has influenced all facets of social movements. Internet is an element for communication, for the creation of identity, for information, for mobilization, for the action itself (cyber attacks), or even for fundraising and financing. Network organization systems find a magnificent ecosystem online.

d) The degree of troubled relationships. It would take into account the capacity of mobilization or protest, as forms of manifestation of social conflict. Social movements are diverse in objectives and in courses of action. They can stay in mere protest or go beyond it. And that protest, defined as "spaces where bodies are used reply, symbols, identities, practices and discourses to pursue or prevent changes in institutionalized power relations" (Taylor and van Dyke, 2004), use "methods of persuasion and coercion that is, most of the time, original, non-orthodox, dramatic and of questionable legitimacy " (Wilson, 1973). This grade is given, in part, by how discontent manifests. The protest is nothing more than a politician resource





- Reject diversity and pluralism in favour of their preferred mono-culture society, e.g. a worldwide Islamic state;

- Adhere to a (good-) ends-justify (-any)-means philosophy to achieve their goals;

- Actively endorse and glorify the use of violence to fight what they consider “evil” and to reach their political objectives (e.g. in the form of jihad);

- Show a propensity to engage in mass violence against actual and potential enemies when in power or when enjoying impunity;

- Are single-minded, black-or-white thinkers who want to purify the world and demonise, debase and dehumanise their enemies in hate speech, characterising them as “inferior” and earmarking them, implicitly or explicitly, as expendable;

- Subordinate individual freedoms to collective goals;

- Refuse to engage in genuine (as opposed to tactical and temporal) compromises with the other side and ultimately seek to subdue or eliminate the enemy;

- Exhibit intolerance to all views other than their own dogmatic one and express this in anger, aggressive behaviour and hate speech;

- Exhibit fanaticism, portray themselves as threatened and embrace conspiracy theories without necessarily being irrational in their strategic choices;

- Exhibit authoritarian, dictatorial or totalitarian traits;

- Are unwilling to accept criticism and intimidate and threaten dissenters, heretics and critics with death;

- Expect obedience to their demands and commands rather than allowing to subject their views and policies to discussion even within their own group; and

- Have fixed ideas and closed minds and

believe there is only one truth – theirs. In its pursuit, they are often willing to face punishment or even death and sometimes actively seek martyrdom.

It could be interested to identify what could be called “gateway organizations”, non-violent but acting as a previous phase in the radicalization process (i.e. Hizb-ut-Tahrir).

Information about individuals

How: §Open Sources.§Interviews

Collect and register:§Templates desingned.

Selecting case studies

It could be possible to research at tow levels. The firs one focused on groups and individuals. The second one, selecting a concrete set of case studies of violent actions (for example violent attacks in Italy – anarchism- or Spain –Resistencia Galega-).

How:§Open sources.§Policy databases

Collect and register:§Fill template of groups and a new template

for the concrete cases of the action to study. Information to collect (based on Global Terrorism Database – GTD -, and RAND Corporation):

- Perpetrator (group, individual)- Date- Country, city.- Attack type- Target type

used by those who lack power (Lipsky, 1965).

e) Actions developed, that could be oriented only to protest or even a service provider. Multitude of social movements accompanies protest activities with the development of multiple health services (as we see in extremist groups as Amanecer Dorado, Hezbollah, or Muslim Brotherhood).

f) The ways in which such action is manifested. In classical forms such as the presence or peaceful resistance, or new ways (such as feminist collective FEMEN protests, but also rooted in the feminist movements of the previous century, it is also a classic revival phenomenon). Other ways would be signing petitions, boycotts, civil disobedience, peaceful resistance, sit-ins, traffic interruptions, occupations, closures, etc.

g) Orientation toward more or less violence. It is always a possibility, the radicalization of a movement that seeks to justify the use of violence.

h) Demand or cause for conflict. From this point of view we can distinguish movements "franchise" style, grouping diverse demands on the political (democracy, participation) and economic (mortgages, rescue, investment and debt), as well as cultural, environmental or social. They represent what is being called new social movements or a "global justice ". On the other hand there are movements that focus only on some of these aspects.

i) Their maturity. Some movements are in progress and delivery. Or been able to reach a level of maturity that ensures its maintenance and continuity, at least while the current crisis and the claims are maintained. Or make the leap to the

system, seeking political representation and thus be leaving social movements. Or are radicalized.

In order to know if a group is extremist the model proposed by Schmid (EMI20) could be applied. While a few of these factors (a total of 20) from this list might be insufficient to identify extremist speech or correctly interpret extremist militancy, the presence of multiple factors lends weight to an assessment of an individual or group as being “extremist”. The more of these indicators that can be found in documents or action patterns of militants, the more likely they have to be considered “extremists” and as such need to be considered as serious threats to liberal-democratic societies.- Situate themselves outside the

mainstream and reject the existing social, political or world order;

- Seek to overthrow, with the help of a revolutionary vanguard, the political system in order to (re-) establish what they consider the natural order in society – whether this envisaged order be based on race, class, faith, ethnic superiority, or alleged tradition;

- Are usually in possession of an ideological programme or action plan aimed at taking and holding communal or state power;

- Reject or, when in power, subvert the liberal-democratic conception of the rule of law; use the political space provided by it to advance their cause in efforts to take state power;

- Reject universal human rights and show a lack of empathy and disregard for rights of other than their own people;

- Reject democratic principles based on popular sovereignty;

- Reject equal rights for all, especially those of women and minorities;





in growth of real GDP.- High levels of social distance or social

polarization- High level of cultural and relational

distance- Ethnic diversity- The size of the young male population- Modern mass media- Low educational status (according to Lia,

connections between poverty, education and terrorism are indirect and probably weak).

- Diasporas- Charismatic ideological leaders- Prisons- Contagion processes between different

countries. Successful operations in one

country are imitated by groups elsewhere

Push factors:- Social politics- Democratic participation - Education level- Strategies against radicalization and

extremism- Community policing- Engagement with minorities and

communities.

Links between groups

In order to evaluate the existing transnational links between different groups, two research approaches are proposed: · The three Rs · Hard and soft links.

Desouza and Hengsen touches upon the theory of the three Rs for transnational terrorist cooperation by stating that ‘Terrorist groups seldom operate in isolation as the economics of the situation [in which the

groups find themselves] will not allow for strictly independent actions’ (2007; 594). The three Rs include Resources, Reciprocity and Reach and are a terrorist group’s limitation. Resources stand for means, reciprocity is exchanging ideas in an open and mutual way, and reach embodies effective, reliable, and like-minded contacts (Ibid.). Concerning the reach, the underlying thoughts on what these terrorists are trying to achieve are relevant. Means to accomplish terrorist attacks, like funds, technology, and knowledge, are scarce and therefore terrorists seek allies in order to be effective.

A second distinction is to be made between hard and soft links (Desouza and Hengsen). Hard links are the most concrete features of collaboration between terrorist groups. Soft links between terrorists include shared ideologies and beliefs, opportunities and chances, and even media strategy.

Soft links can more or less be defined as intangible while hard links are tangible. These hard and soft links are addressed throughout the case study in order to discuss the levels of connections between the groups.

a) Soft links - Solidarity – This includes all actions

that express solidarity with the cause or actions of another terrorist organization.

- Ideology – This category contains the connection between different organizations with an ideological resemblance or an ideological influence.

- Strategy – This category covers the overall strategy of a terrorist organization based on or influenced by another organization’s strategy. It also contains strategy developed in conjunction with other organizations.

- Weapon- Fatalities- Injured - Domestic or international action§Domestic or transnational perpetrators.- Attack claimed

Information about root causes of insurgency or violent extremism

How: - Literature review.- Interviews.- Case study

Collect and register:- Fill templates on macro environmental

factors, in order to be analysed with the other templates.

General causes alleged in terrorism/insurgency (from literature review):- Micro: Individualo Sense of power, revenge, significance,

etc.o Existential sense of loss, deprivation,

alienation from the countries in which they live

- Meso: Social/Groups/Networkso Radicalization process, charismatic

leaders, internet, o Family, school, associations, etc.- Macro:o Cultural§Alienation and humiliation§Narratives and historical memories (“just

cause”)§Cultural conflicts in countries§Local and ethnic conflictso Political§Political discontent§Nationalism, revolution, religion.§Failed or fragile states

§The action of government at home and abroad

§Disillusionment over the possibility of change through non-violence

§Rise of intolerance§Corruption§Armed conflicts§State violence and repressive regimeso Economic§Inequality§Employment§Economic crisiso Religious§Divided societies because of religion§Rise of religious intolerance

Information about triggers, push and pull factors

How: §Open sources§Literature review.§Interviews

Previous list of possible pull factors (from Literature Review):- Globalization- Global diffusion of certain political

cultures and ideas.- An international system dominated by

hegemonic powers- Low measures of freedom and

democracy.- Semi-authoritarian or semi-democratic

countries- Participation in wars- Historical contingencies or radicalized

political conspiracies- Highly contentious polities.- Political deprivation of groups.- Transitional or new democracies.- Societies with rapid modernization- Rapid economic development, measured





- Media strategy – This category includes in particular the media strategy that terrorist organizations undertake together with another organization, under influence of, or as a tribute to that other organization.

b) Hard links - Alliance – This category contains

all alliances through declarations (communiqués, statements etc.) of forming an alliance and in addition all declarations of the existence of an alliance, between two or more terrorist organizations.

- Methods and tactics – This category describes the methods and tactics that organizations use based on or influenced by the methods and tactics of others. It can be closely linked to the category AOBO (see below). For example: hijacking airplanes.

- Organizational assistance – This category includes providing the necessary logistics and supplies (other than weapons and finance) for another terrorist organization.

- Joint attacks – This covers all the attacks and operations in which more than one terrorist organization participated.

- Action on behalf of (AOBO) – This category covers all the actions that are conducted on behalf of another organization.

- Training – All the trainings that are given or received by another organization fall into this category.

- Protection – This category includes, for example, providing safe houses for other organizations.

- Weapons – This category covers all the weapons that were distributed to or shared by other terrorist organizations. This includes for example the explosives stolen by CCC and used by CCC, RAF and AD.

- Finance – This category includes the flow of money to other terrorist organizations.

Gateway organizations

Within this report, the term Gateway Organizations those groups, movements, associations or other groups of people, even developing for social or legal activism activities, they make use these structures to committing crimes. These organizations work as a gateway to other groups for all or part of its members. The greater complexity becomes evident when the legal activist or social activity become to illicit, It is organized and intentionally. Here it is when it can say that there are structures that are born to facilitating and concealing such behaviour. The difficulty increases when ties are established between different countries, to make the much difficult the identification and research.

WORD CLOUDS TO UNDERSTAND THE NEW MULTI-SEMANTIC OF RADICALISATION





Initial Reports:

The interviews of TransRad were carried out during the second half of the project timeline. The first year of the project was spent writing detailed reports on specific member state radical problems, and towards establishing a list of worthwhile and feasible research candidates for interview. A mixture of expert focus groups, stakeholder workshops, LEA (law enforcement agency) and governmental interviews, and, literature reviews were carried out by the multidisciplinary and transnational TransRad consortium. As listed below, a total of ten detailed reports were created on radical groups in multiple countries:

From this detailed series of reports, the project partners further refined the findings political factions and associations into eight noticeable key areas:

1. Far Right/Fascism2. Far Left/Communist3. Religion-Based4. Secularist5. Liberalism6. Socialist7. Nationalist8. International

The establishment of eight key areas was carefully chosen through a series of field-expert and partner discussions. The idea of the eight areas was to locate a series

COUNTRY OF INVESTIGATION REPORT TITLE TYPES OF RADICALISATION (GENERIC)

United Kingdom and IrelandExtremist Groups in the UK and Ireland: Background to the current movements

Far Right, Far Left, Irish Republicans, Irish Loyalists, Anti-Islam

Czech RepublicExtremism in the Czech Republic in the

years 2012-2015Far Right, Far Left, Anarchism, Anti-

Islam

Czech RepublicExtremism in the Czech Republic in the

years 2012-2015Far Right, Far Left, Anti-Islam, Militant

Islam

Slovakia Radicalisation of Society in Slovakia Far Right, Far Left, Anti-Roma

Denmark Islamism in Denmark Militant Islam

Bulgaria

Newly Arising Threats to the Bulgarian National Security:

(political violence, extremism, terrorism and civil commotion)

Far Right, Hooliganism, Militant Islam, Far Left

Turkey Report on Turkey (English version) Militant Islam, Far Left

Greece Country Report - GreeceFar Right, Far Left, Xenophobia, Foreign

Terrorism

Bulgaria Political Party Report (1.) Anti-Islam, Militant Islam,

Bulgaria ATTAK Party Report (2.) Far Right, Xenophobia





colourful series of results for presentation. Instead it was decided to associate each individual interview with a single colour, of their primary identifiable characteristic. This had the added benefit of longevity and coherence, although it provided a somewhat over-simplification that recipients of the interactive tool ought to be made aware of. It was decided, a top-down EU to individual level, expansionist presentation method would be used. Firstly looking at high frequency words at the EU level, then the National level, then the group and individual level. This top-down approach would highlight in a reductive manor differences between nations and specific radical groups inside states. The total corpus of the collective transcripts were assimilated into an online Word Cloud Generation tool known as Tagxedo.1 A series of steps were taken when processing words to maximise the clarity of findings, and minimise ambiguity.

Firstly: Common words were automatically removed. This allowed the Word Cloud tool to automatically filter determiners, conjunc-tions, prepositions, pronouns and ad-verbs. This ensured that important, non-generic, meaningful words such as verbs, nouns, adjectives and exclamatives would be presented in the word cloud.

1 See: www.tagxedo.com

Secondly: Tagxedo automatically combined related and identical words through an algorithm of its frequency modifier. This allows for words such as: a). Islam and b). Islamic, to be grouped together under Islam, and thus avoiding an overpopulation of similar words that generally hold the same meaning. The greater the frequency of identical and related words, the greater the relative size of the word would be portrayed.

Thirdly: Depending on the level of expansion of a particular interview, or collection of national interviews, different quantities and emphasis were applied to the maximum word count. Non-expanded word views had a higher maximum word count of around 200 different words and low emphasis to provide a generic overview of the total interview. Expanded views used a lower maximum word count of around 70 words and a higher emphasis to detail the differences in frequency of the most used various words.

Finally: A skip function was used, to manually remove oddities or anomalies that had had fallen through the Filter.

(Above: Two pictures of the Tagxedo variable filter processing settings)

of identifying factors, that at least, could be uniformly applied to a group. This was taken from the perspective of EU member state security concerns, and subsequently the association of one, or more, key areas to a radical group or individual. Therefore they are reflective of current EU member-state perspectives, and not necessarily the reflections or identifications of the groups or individuals, themselves. Furthermore, the TransRad project acknowledges the fluid and dynamic evolution of radical entities, therefore the chosen political affiliation is also representative of longevity and consistency. Therefore in the later stage of the Word Cloud methodology, a single leading key area was designated is the primary recognition factor to a group or individual, based on the likelihood of longevity as well as being the best representation of their characteristics.

Interviews:

Following form the initial half of the project reports and identified key areas, a series of interviews were collectively prepared for a diverse range of willing participants. Participants were asked their names and associated groups, they were allowed the option to withdraw or redact personal information, of which just one individual did so.Due to complications with a dynamic range of languages all needing to be translated into English, a basic set of criteria was agreed on by the consortium for each interview, however an overall process of devolution was adopted. This devolution process allowed each expert partner to, structure the majority of the interview as they wished, thus allowing for catered questions and responses to particular events. This was carried out in the hope of gaining specific, valuable and

non-generic information, and also to better collect and understand the points of view and rationale of the interviewee.The total interview and English translation process took place over approximately 6 months. A total of 20 individual transcripts were collected, translated and processed, with a total of 58,988 English words. This total of English words included short questions, asked by the interviewer to the interviewee, in order to better understand the context of answers that may deviate or appear ambiguous to the original question. The below table gives a breakdown of the countries interviews were held as well as the number of interviews.

When collecting the interviews, a series of discussions lead by Coordinator Agenfor, and technical lead; CENTRIC (Sheffield Hallam University) were carried out. An interactive PowerPoint was agreed to display a series of Word Clouds. This was due to its position as an industry and educational standard, adopted by virtually all EU member states, furthermore the easy open document format, made changing, enhancing and adding content to the document easy and efficient. Originally a series of prototype designs tested multiple methods of nuanced words to reflect individual groups, affiliations to identified key areas, however this was dropped due to creating a confusing, overly

COUNTRY NUMBER OF INTERVIEWS

Italy 3

Germany 2

Spain 5

Bulgaria 5

Czech Republic 5





Word Cloud Structure:

This section details the formation of the multiple layers of the TransRad interactive Word Cloud, a thorough description and explanation upon a selection of these findings is found later in Section 5; the Selected Cloud Expansion Walkthrough.

The EU Level:

The overall corpus of collective transcripts was processed to produce an overview of the key frequency words used collectively around Europe. The words were distributed evenly and randomly around the EU map, the size of the individual word however represents its relative frequency to others. From viewing the image below, the obvious high frequency words are; European, Organization, Movements, Think, Consider, Person, Social, Problem, etc...

The initial EU level Word Cloud was used primarily for the initial showcasing of the

tool. The detailed breakdown of the words was decided to begin at the national level down to the individual transcript level. This decision was reached following the many disparate contextual meanings behind each individual word, the overall presentation of high frequency; EU level words didn't reach a uniform collective meaning, they varied largely dependent upon faction, individual and nation. Therefore this initial stage is useful for a generic overview of the highest overall frequency words, and as a sound introduction to the EU level cloud design.

The National Level Overview:

The National Level slides featured a different design to the previous EU level Word Cloud. The National Level Overview provided an interactive, multi-tier approach to exploring various word frequencies of the English transcripts. The multiple tiers are presented and explained below:

Tier 1: National Interview Overview

This first layer of the Word Cloud tool, presents the user with an interactive menu. By clicking either a national flag or a 'National Fingerprint' (a nation-specific word cloud); the user will be taken through the interface to the secondary interactive tier. Each national fingerprint contains a total aggregation of processed transcript words, the axis layout of words is deliberately chaotic to fit inside the fingerprint design. This chaotic design is replaced with a horizontal orientation and enlarged, emphasised text in the second tier.

Tier 2: Expanded View - Italy Example

Using the above example of Italy within the secondary tier of the National Interview





Overview remains black at this stage, attempts to use nuanced words looked overly complex, messy, and somewhat confusing in an eclectic manner. A single colour is used to represent the localised inter-viewee transcripts and also in the statistical break-down of individual words offered in the third tier. Alter-natively the user may select the Word Count sta-tistical graph, this hyperlink transports them to tier 3 of the Na-tional Interview Overview; a two page series of statistics detailing the relative proportions key words have been used by each internal-national interviewee. Additionally the Word Count graph details the frequency of the in-dividual key words allowing for convenient data visualisation. The third option for the user is to select the Expanded Fingerprint View and to view a breakdown slide of the Localised Word Cloud sectors.

Tier 3: Word Statistics - Spain and Bulgaria Examples:

The above is an excerpt from the Spanish (left) and Bulgarian (right) Word Statistics slides. Each nation features two pages of slides which provide a detailed percentile breakdown of individual key word frequencies

in relation to the individual interviewee transcript. Each segment of the word corpus is coloured in association with the chosen political affiliation colours. This colouring is repeated in the localised and individual expanded views of interview transcripts. These pages include the options to navigate between the two statistic pages and also to return to the main menu. Alternatively, the user can continue to cycle through the PowerPoint manually, by clicking in non-hyperlinked areas, such as in plain empty white spaces.

Localised Word Clouds: Spain Example

The above shows the Localised Word Cloud view for Spain. This expanded view shows a collective fingerprint for each individual transcript recorded. The transcripts are coloured in coordination with the political associations assigned by the project:

Overview, the user is able to view a more co-herent and expanded view of the interview transcript. Particular emphasis is placed on the expanded key words, which are also au-tomatically processed to align alongside the centre of the Word Cloud. The secondary

tier provides three interactive hyperlinks to slides inside the PowerPoint. The 'Back to Main Menu' option will trans-ports the user back to the tier 1 overview, allowing them access to alternative national deviations. The text of the National Level





Key Word Expansion: (Krasmir Karakachanov Example)

This particular slide shows details about the transcript with; Krasimir Karakachanov, a Bulgarian politician and historian. Krasimir is currently the leader of the IMRO: Which is the Bulgarian National Movement.The Key Word expanded upon was; 'Education'. On the Left we have the oxford English Dictionary Description, and on the right we have the key word explained in the context of the interview, and in relation to Karakachanov. The expansion shows vast differences about repeatedly raised interview topics, between their actual definition and

contextual meaning. Below the Oxford English Dictionary is a set of relevant statistics, it details problems with Roma education in Eastern Europe, with a negative correlation beginning at approximately 12-14 years of age (The economist, 2011). The presentation tool contains well over 100 Individual Key Word Expansions.

Selected Cloud Expansion Walkthrough:

This next section features a Selective Expansion Walkthrough of a select few examples form the pool of 20 individual candidate transcripts.

In a similar manner to the statistical breakdown of individual key word frequencies, the transcripts are easily identified to the user through the single colour affiliations. Like previous slides, the ability to return to the main menu is included, alongside the ability to select a fingerprint and be transported to the next level expanded view.

Individual Expanded View: (Italy - Gabriele Adinolfi Example)

The above image shows an example of the Individual Expanded Cloud View, the number of total words has been reduced slightly, and greater emphasis applied to the automation process. This creates a clearer, more distinct set of key words to stand out from the main body. The slide title reveals the particular name, or in cases where the name was not available, the particular group of an interviewee. The entire body of text is coloured to match the assigned political affiliation. The next section details the Key word Expansion View:





is essential to reform the modern German attitude towards the rest of the world: "We cannot think as [a] country [of] 80 million citizens to work with the US and rule the world. Germany made the 1st and 2nd world war, here the idea was to conquer the world through military [might]."Population: Falk criticises the unfairness and inequalities of the wider world 7billion population compared to the German 80 million: "Germany must understand that we cannot take advantage from war and exploit raw materials and nothing happens, nothing turns back, that those who criticize Germany are the real danger. Just take the environmental problem: we talked about this topic 20 years ago and we were labeled as radicals. Now governments realize that this problems have a backlash. Germany must understand that they should create fair living conditions for the other people as well."World: Believes strongly against the destruction of the environment being brought about by global warming. Previously people whom campaigned for global warming in its infancy were branded as radicals, however now such beliefs and security concerns are widespread, legitimate security concerns. Simply talking about environmental degradation isn't enough, there needs to be greater European investment, and a reform in the exploitation of secondary and third world countries.Imperialism: Falk argues that Islam and Christianity don't necessarily clash with one another. Currently the clash of civilisation comes from Western-Imperialism and Islam, Islam has taken the role of socialist groups to combat its ideology: "...every now and then a lot of different resistance movements emerged and this put a spoke in his wheel. Imperialism knows no moral and is profit orientated and this is its agenda."

Modern imperialistic countries initiated and benefitted from the expansion, however this came at the cost of exploiting the rest of the world; "we are now like a band of thieves..."European: Three major problems for Europe:The Syrian refugee crisis (caused by the exportation of weapons and the western exploitation have now backfired).Lack of European identity caused by declining populations, and Europe's management and bureaucracy is so far detached form the common problems and issues of its population. Europeans also do not hold a solidarity and identify with each other in a wider sense, just at a very local/regional level. The environmental destruction being carried out by modernity.

Case Study 2: Germany Udo Voigt

Europe: Also details three major problems with Europe:· Immigration. Voigt argues the need to

build a "fortress of Europe" to defend against the flow of immigration.

· The German (native) demographic problem. (Traditional inhabitants are giving birth to a declining and ageing population).

· The lack of 'hope and perspective', particular regarding those in the Hartz IV class. (a very low income/ benefits societal group of the working class).

Islam: Islam is seen as a threat to European Security. Voigt states that the 3500[sic] in the EU are financed by Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and through this influence will deliberately undermine the Christian faith and help spread aggressive Islam. Voigt argues that Islam does not belong in Europe, but in Asia. He feels that it may undermine the social and cultural aspects of Europe.

Case Study 1: Germany Bernhard Falk

Germany: Falk argues that Germany needs to revolutionise its way of thinking to the external world. Germany needs to revise and revolt against any imperialistic or military-superiority ideologies, including how this has been manifested currently; with German arms exports being 'third in the world' [sic - as of March 2015, China is third largest arms exporter].Such German policies need to be reformed and align with the population. Germany must also accept that Muslims are present and have their rights, but also to differentiate between moderate Muslims (whom may

also want an Islamic State) and the present (illegitimate) IS group, whom many Muslims oppose.Islam: Falk argues for the need for greater German public solidarity with Muslims and their beliefs, and acknowledges the differences with the forms of Islam being (miss-represented) by the Islamic State, and other terror organisations: "I expect that Germany accepts that also Muslims want to have their rights and want to have their Islamic state, which is not that of ISIS, but a thing that concerns Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia." Problems: Proposes several solutions to the contemporary problems of Europe: It





political movement. States great discontent with current political and legislative systems, referring to friend/lawyer Horst Mahler's incarceration. Mahler has recently faced numerous charges since 2003 regarding Nazi banalization, Holocaust denial and for promoting Hitler as 'a saviour of the German people', he has multiple stints in prison for his political activities, and is currently still under 2009 convictions. Christian: Voigt believes strongly in Christian values, therefore states that violence is not a acceptable or legitimate form of protest in the political scene. Believes in finding a common ground for issues such as immigration, such as investing and establishing secure governments in the root-problem countries such as Syria, as a solution to prevent the mass refugee influx. However believes that

in the current scenario Christianity and Islam are a clash of civilizations. Believes that the mass cohabitation of Muslims and Christians, is detrimental to authentic and progressive European culture.

Case Study 3: Ahmed Mussa

Mosque: November 2014: Police investigation and subsequent armed raid on houses and Mosques. Suspected for preaching radical Islam and spreading Islamic State propaganda. Ahmed Mussa Ahmed detained in front of family and taken to local mosque to uncover evidence. 40 places in four other Bulgarian cities with Islamic communities had been searched.People: Imam movement/position: A position of Sunni leadership, often interpreting the

People: Voigt talks in detail about Germany's young people, in particular the phenomenon of young Muslims and Christians going to Syria to fight for/against ISIS. Believes that ISIS is not a new/noble idea but a terror organisation that 'represents a degenerated society of hatred'. Voigt argues that those who leave the country to fight alongside IS give up their right to be citizens of Germany and should not be allowed back into the country.Party: The National Democratic Party was founded in 1964. They self identify as; "Germany's only significant patriotic force". Since 1968 there have been efforts to ban this party, particularly due to its affiliation with Neo-Nazi members and relation to statements of holocaust denial (illegal action in Germany). The NPD argues that it is

discriminated against in spite of freedom of expression and freedom of speech/'political movement'. Germany: Voigt spent 12 years in the German air force leaving as an officer in 1984, then he studied political science. Argues that Germany has lacked significant national sovereignty and is 'occupied' today, through its submission to the United States policies and diplomacy. Believes the NPD are fighting for the freedom of Germany and for their independence and sovereignty. needs to protect the Traditional identity of the German people, wishes to reduce immigrant influence and increase the traditional-native childbirth rate.Political: Agrees that the NPD is a radical party in terms of its political claims. Fights for greater German freedom of expression and





be used to help members in trouble, or if arrested.Different: Feels prejudiced against, particularly by black skinned, and the Roma. Feels they are given positive discrimination. 'This is a great social injustice'. Many football ultras or hooligans seem un-educated or indoctrinated by heavy anti-Islamic misinformation and disinformation. The contents of the interview suggests a personal sympathy for WWII era Germany, hunts at a more beneficial Czech modernity, had Germany won the war.Czech: Some members of the cell hold travel bans limiting their movement outside of the Czech Republic. Most spend weekends travelling across the Czech republic attending various football matches Sparta is playing. Individuals in the cell are dissatisfied with society in general, particularly the role of the Roma people, the economic crises and the problems of housing people.

Case Study Summaries:

A diverse range of political affiliations has been drawn upon in the above case studies, this was undertaken to highlight similarities, contrasts and areas of interest between the four specimens. The presentation of the expanded word view clouds is particularly useful for drawing attention to key words and patterns, as well as expanding the context of individual words. Additionally the integration of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions allows for the words to be easily understood and accessible by partners, trainers, and trainees whom may not hold the greatest coherence of the English language. Although a small selection of the total number of interviews has been taken, we can the presented case studies emerging trends.

Vague concepts such as people, politics and party; were recurring themes, despite the openness of such words, the contextual interview meaning displayed they revealed strong ideologies, grievances and concerns. The theme of religion, conveyed through words such as Islam and Christian, showed varying differences. Islam was seen overall in a negative sense by right wing parties, whereas Islam in general was seen in a positive light by Falk the converted socialist-Muslim. Ahmed Mussa, the Roma converted to Islam, also saw Islam in a positive light, but more specifically the Salafi strand. Both Mussa and Falk are converted Salafist Muslims who view appear moderate in their interviews with tolerance for Western life, however they have been found and charged under radical and extremist laws, particularly for involvement with terrorist propaganda and plotting to incite violence. This may be attributed to the fear of repeated persecution by officials as well as by 'tyranny of the majority', indeed Salafist Muslims make up a very small minority of both Bulgarian and German populations. However, the case studies reflect a greater trend of the interviews carried out, often right-wing extremists have an easier time purveying the nature of their radical views. The right wing and nationalistic individuals interviewed are part of communities that as a whole felt resentment and blame towards ethnic and religious minorities.

Conclusion:

While the second Paris attacks have undoubtedly increased panic and tension, they have also fuelled global extremism with both support and opposition to their success. Right wing groups in particular have gained prominence in the media and

Quran for followers guidance. Many modern convictions of Imams radicalising young males and encouraging them to fight in Syria, or to support the Islamic State. Global: Increasing use of modern technology to spread propaganda and indoctrinate the vulnerable. Computers and mobiles were recovered from the raid upon Mussa Amad's mosque. As of September 2014: Estimated 3,000 European jihadists have joined the jihadist cause abroad.Muslim: Relating to; Salafi: ultra-conservative orthodoxical movement of Sunni Islam. Imam communities have been prosecuted previously, 14 Imams prosecuted for spreading 'anti-democratic' ideology.

Case Study 4: Sparta Hooligans

Members: Members encouraged to stay fit, remain in touch with nature, don't take 'hard drugs'. They don't agree with the current state of society in general, as well as the governing political party. The main problem is seen to be the media. Members prioritise tradition, loyalty, values - many of which don't agree with modern gender/religious and liberal values of human rights.Sparta: See themselves as modern hunters and warriors. Group potentially made up of members with military experience, have been involved in fighting in former Yugoslavia (Kiev, Kosovo). Claim to be ready for 'war'.People: Earn money cleaning woods, helping firefighters, collecting iron. This employment partially helps club fees, which in turn may





Islamic State are usually arrested, despite the damaging effects of prison and isolation, and the potential benefits of exploring their value to countering radicalisation.

Next Steps:

The next steps of the project will be to utilise this report, alongside the expert trainers and the PowerPoint tool to support selected radicalisation stakeholders. Additionally further interviews and transcripts will be collected, from countries such as England, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden, and integrated into the word cloud tool for further educational and data visualisation purposes. This will be undertaken by the end of January 2016, and documented in the final TransRad Report.

Bibliography:

Alpert, M., It's Not Just Paris: From nigeria to Egypt, 10 of 2015's worst Terror Attacks., (Online: Foreign Policy, 16th November 2015) Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/16/its-not-just-paris-from-nigeria-to-egypt-ten-of-2015s-worst-terror-attacks/

Beitz, C. R., Political Theory and International Relations., Canadian Journal of Political Science., Vol. 14., Iss. 01., (Online: Princetone University Press., March 1981) pp.192-193. Available at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=6379280&jid=CJP&volumeId=14&issueId=01&aid=6379276 (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

Bradley, B., European Unity in the Post Cold War Era., (Online: International Relations Students, February 2012) Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2012/02/22/the-cold-war-may-have-ended-but-europe-is-still-just-as-divided/ (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

Finlan, Alastair., The Collapse of Yugoslavia 1991-1999., (Oxford, UK, Osprey, 2004)

Ford, R., Goodwin, M., Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain., (Oxon, UK: Routledge Press, 2014)

Herbele, R., Analysis of a Neo-Fascist Party: The NPD., Polity Journal., Vol. 03., No. 01., (Online: JSTOR, Autumn 1970) Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3234157?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

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political sphere, this momentum is unlikely to be short lived whilst the air of caution still hovers inside the EU. However, evidence of hope also exists; limited cooperation has been found in unlikely places and partnerships. It is clear that in order to fight radicalisation, greater cooperation inside and outside the European Union is required. Unconventional allies such as Russia may yield benefits through increased information sharing and reassertion of power towards radical causes and consequences. It is important to consider extremism as a tactic or political tool more than anything else. Society has to be very careful when attempting to counter it, whether through a political discourse, a show of force, or a foreign intervention. For example, recently in Paris there has been a series of (24) pre-emptive arrests prior to the global climate conference. Although most were house arrests, pre-emptive arrests, or, arrests based on little evidence, that do result in individuals going to prison is likely to radicalise them much further, and potentially glorify their incarceration in the eyes of sympathisers. For a lot of EU member states; the military and the police have traditionally been

considered as the foremost responsible agents for counter-terrorism, but realistically this is impractical. In reality it is important to acknowledge that most areas of society hold a shared responsibility for radicalisation awareness and preventative matters.

The above picture details an example of several of the most prominent push and pull factors found through analysis of the interview case studies. A lot of the push factors hold the potential to be resolved within society itself, and help to de-radicalise individuals in a preventative manner. Even some of the pull factors can be handled within society, for example through better education, through more active involvement in multi-cultural society, and through dissemination of materials from ex-radicals. The project has stressed the importance of critical thinking and self-reflection. For example one of the notable grievances for interviewed radicals was the idea of Double-Standards and Hypocrisy. The project looked into how EU countries dealt with: Western foreign fighters against Daesh have not been arrested upon returning. Where as who train and fight alongside the



Nationalism, Globalism and State-Terrorism., (London, UK: Pluto Press, 2005)

Seierstad, A., One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway., (London, UK: Virago, 2015)

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Staten, C, L., Asymmetric Warfare, the Evolution and Devolution of Terrorism; The Coming Challenge For Emergency and National Security Forces., (Online: Emergency Response and Research Institute, April, 1998) Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.372.61&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

Waltz, K., Structural Realism After the Cold War., International Security Journal., Vol. 25., No. 01., (Online: MIT Press Journals) pp.4-41. Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/016228800560372#.Vk7xXbfhC70 (Accessed online: 20/11/2015)

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