Talking to Terrorists

Since September 11, we have struggled to determine why individuals become radicalized by certain ideas and eventually engage in terrorism. Despite the amount of research into this issue, no one has identified a concrete explanation for this phenomenon of radicalization.

Dr. Anne Speckhard, Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, spent over a decade conducting research in the field and engaging terrorists in dialogue. She traveled through the West Bank and Gaza, into the prisons in Iraq, down the alleyways of the Casa Blanca slums, inside Chechnya, and into the radicalized neighborhoods of Belgium, the UK, France and the Netherlands.

Please join the New America Foundation’s National Security Studies Program for a conversation with Dr. Speckhard about her experiences and the conclusions she draws in her new book, Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs.”

Participants

Anne Speckhard, PhD
Author, Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs”

Peter Bergen
Director, National Security Studies Program, New America Foundation