Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Homegrown Violent Extremists: A Quantitative Study of the Motivation and Mobilization of ISIS-Radicalized Americans

Abstract

This thesis examines the terrorist activities planned and carried out by the 268 Americans who are identified by the Department of Justice as having been radicalized to support the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). This is achieved through the development of a dataset for this work, which codes for fifty-six variables that capture the behavior, demographics, and social activity of ISIS-radicalized Americans. Eight variables indicate how Americans mobilized to support ISIS, broadly classifying them as Foreign Terrorist Fighters who seek to travel to fight for ISIS or Homegrown Violent Extremists who wish to commit violence in the U.S. Americans who fall into one or both of these categories are referred to as ISIS-radicalized Americans or ISRAs. This work identified twelve statistically significant social and demographic factors that predict how ISRAs mobilize their support for ISIS. Findings indicate that online radicalized lone actors are less likely to engage in foreign terrorist fighter activity and more likely to plan violence in the U.S.; the inverse is true for ISRAs who actively reach out to ISIS. An ISRA’s ethnicity also plays a vital role in the activity he or she engages in; these specific relationships are explored later in this work. These conclusions suggest that narrow counter-radicalization strategies are needed to combat ISIS’s influence on Americans. The federal government must work with community partners to educate vulnerable populations on the signs of radicalization and with social media companies to increase the removal rate of ISIS content. We must remain cognizant that the real threat is ISIS and its targeting of vulnerable populations, not our fellow Americans.