2016

Talking to Foreign Fighters: Socio-Economic Push versus Existential Pull Factors

The research acquired primary data through interviews with foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, the families and friends of such fighters, and other online supporters of jihadism, to better understand the process by which these fighters radicalized and their motivations for travelling to Syria or Iraq. Between mid-2014 and early 2016 130 interviews were completed …

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Trying to Talk to Terrorists: Ethical and Methodological Challenges in Canada

Scholars have long shied away from talking to terrorists. This is because there are significant methodological and ethical problems posed by such research. How can we manage those challenges and facilitate such research? Terrorism scholars face a unique challenge: accessing “primary data.” Most social sciences use interviews with those they are studying as an essential …

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The Future of Right-Wing Terrorism in Canada

What is the range of likely scenarios for future right-wing terrorism in Canada, based on connections to radical movements in the US and Europe? Which factors or actions may mitigate the most likely scenarios? How might the future of Canadian right-wing terrorism be distinct from those of the US and Europe? There has been a …

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Jihad in the Jazeera: Explaining The Islamic State’s Growing Insurgent Threat in Egypt

Why did Wilayat Sinai – The Islamic State’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula – evolve to become an unprecedented challenge to the Egyptian state? From 2012 to 2015, militant attacks in the Sinai have increased tenfold, to over 100 attacks per month on average in 2015. Egyptian military casualties are estimated to be over 700 …

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Research into How Resources are Acquired, Moved and Used to Support Acts of Terrorism

The study was directed to answer six questions on terrorist resourcing in Canada through a comparative analysis that identified: resourcing activities; actors involved; interconnections of activities; importance of different forms; implications of the activities; means of response; and, the relative value of conducting analysis through the Terrorist Resourcing Model (TRM) lens. The Canadian approach to …

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Social impacts of the securitized arrival experiences of in-Canada refugee claimants

This multi-sited research included qualitative interviews with 19 in-Canada refugee claimants declared convention refugees under the new (since Dec 1, 2012) immigration legislation. The research sought to answer two questions: (i) What are the effects of the securitization of migration policies insofar as success in integration and feelings of trust and belonging; and (ii) Are …

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Analyzing the formal and informal roles of women in security and justice in Yemen: Reflections for future considerations

This paper is part of a larger project which examines the roles and agency of women in counterterrorism practices. This paper specifically asks: what formal and informal roles have women played in the provision of security in Yemen, and how may this inform domestic post-conflict security considerations, as well as international security concerns? Yemen is …

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Cheering on the Jihad: An Exploration of Women’s Participation in Online Pro-jihadist Networks

This paper poses the following questions: Can identifiable patterns of engagement by female posters be discerned based on content of posts? Does the type of the jihadist group studied have any appreciable effect on female members’ posting content? This paper presents the findings of two separate, but inter-related, studies of the posting activities of women …

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Teaching CVE: a review of the Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Australia handbook, and challenges across policy and practice

(1) What are some of the key issues and challenges that emerged following the release of the Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Australia (PVERA) handbook? (2) What lessons that can be drawn from the content and public reception of the PVERA handbook? Schools and community organizations have recently become an important focus of the …

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Assessment of the state of knowledge: Connections between research on the social psychology of the Internet and violent extremism

This paper seeks to answer the question: How does social psychology contribute to our understanding of the link between the Internet and violent extremism? There seems to be little doubt that the Internet is increasingly implicated in radicalization processes. Yet the mechanisms underlying the link between the Internet and violent extremism, and their relative importance, …

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Bridging the National Security Accountability Gap: A Three-Part System to Modernize Canada’s Inadequate Review of National Security

This paper examines existing challenges associated with the current structure of national security accountability review in Canada. It then draws on best practices in other jurisdictions to propose a systematic overall of the Canadian national security review system. The paper hopes to contribute to current discussions about reform in this area. It focuses particular attention …

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Taking Hoaxes Seriously: Characteristics of Terrorism Hoaxes and their Perpetrators

What can existing literature and available data tell us about terrorism hoaxes (i.e. those incidents that are believed to be acts of serious terrorism, but do not actually involve any real risk of harm)? Terrorist hoaxes do not result in death or harm to people or property, but they do impose costs on governments and …

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Impromptu Initiative: Security Certificates and Scale

This paper offers some background and theoretical framing as part of a larger project on the Canadian Security Certificate Initiative. Here I consider questions about different ways of thinking about responses to national security and how they contrast with security concerns that do not invoke the need for secrecy. The use of secret information in …

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Policies and Responsibilities for Governing Violent Extremism at Ontario Universities

This research looks at the governance of violent extremism on Ontario university campuses. Specifically, it explores: 1) how Ontario universities are governed; 2) how student organizations (such as clubs) and student governments are governed, and; 3) pre-existing policies that could apply to the governance of violent extremism. The policies of ten universities and the governance …

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