Page 19 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

DR. PAUL S. LIEBER: RE-ASSESSING ONLINE JIHADI EXTREMISM: REASONING FOR A MARKETING APPROACH
TO COUNTER-RADICALIZATION

counter-narrative approaches to combating online violent extremism, and instead reasons for
a gradual change to a knowledge environment, one capable of more subtle achievement of the
intended goals.

Kuznetsova et al.’s (2019) ‘nets for trust’ model expands the boiling frog effect into four
stages. The first stage, ‘preparing the nets’, sees ‘anger and mistrust’ as core sentiments in a
distrustful population, including a lack of faith in formal governance structures. This stage
also reasons that, due to this strong anger and mistrust, individuals would be eager and willing
to engage in discussions about their dissatisfactions at the earliest opportunity. For extremists,
this may be evidenced via in a rise in online interactions with peers.

The second stage, ‘throwing the nets’, is a ‘what if?’ focus on uncertainty and lostness. Im-
pacted individuals begin to question whether their prior stage sentiments are fully justified.
This would be an anticipated form of reasoning for foreign fighters returning to a host country,
and now with competing identities.

The third stage, ‘dropping a lure’ or ‘adoption’, would now find disenfranchised individuals
more regularly engaging with the world around them. In contrast to purely radicalized views,
extremists may begin to accept more of their former nationalistic identity, and become more
active members of society. Still, and despite this increased participation, distrust is evident.
This stage, according to the model, is the make or break point. Individuals will either progress
to integrating their identities and away from an extremist mindset, or find the conflict too high
a hurdle to overcome. (They would then fall back into the prior two stages.) The fourth and
final stage, ‘pulling out the fish’ or ‘proponent’, would be the adoption of a more peaceful
identity, devoid of tendencies towards radicalization.

Using the ‘nets for trust’ model as an example, counter-radicalization efforts could be seg-
mented into four stages of intervention. Supporting assessment criteria would evaluate transi-
tions across the stages, and also areas of weakness of opportunities. Social network analysis
data could point to the (non-)effectiveness of efforts by shifts in social and communication
structures at different stages of the model.

5.2 Customer Relationship Management

Along a different vein but arguably just as applicable to counter-radicalization, Kaur (2019)
proposed a new approach to marketing (of business degrees), emphasizing a customer rela-
tionship management focus. Kaur called for ‘customized personalization’ versus ‘mass cus-
tomization’ in marketing message techniques, and, by doing so, sought to foster more mean-
ingful and sustained interactions with audiences. This would empower candidates to overtly
question justifications and motivations for the degree selection decision, and also to shape
degree experience to fit initial decisions.

While Kaur’s model was designed to increase enrolment and retention, it features strong po-
tential if considered in a counter-radicalization context. At present, nearly all counter-radical-
ization efforts focus on mainstream counter-arguments. This allows alternatives to emerge,
but does so in a universal, black versus white, all or nothing context. Resonance increases
reach, but not necessarily effectiveness.

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