SMU SOE Seminar (May 22, 2017): What Makes a Terrorist? Evidence from Daesh Foreign Recruits

This paper presents a contribution to the literature on the relationship between inclusion, economic development and violent extremism. It uses a unique database of Daesh foreign recruits to analyze the link between economic, social and political conditions and the global phenomenon of Daesh. We find that Daesh did not recruit its foreign workforce among the poor and less educated, but rather the opposite. Instead, the lack of economic inclusion, measured by the unemployment rate, seems to explain the extent of radicalization into violent extremism.

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