Thank you! I’ll go through it.
My question is. Do you think the upcoming generation is de-radicalized and that may lead to collapse of this “supply chain” in the coming decade or so?
This is a million dollar question. So, the last time I attended a CT seminar was in 2022 in Islamabad and spoke with some excellent academics and researchers in Pakistan who specialize in CT and CVE.
The broad consensus is that the largely alienated generation stems from Gen X who have continued to propagate their narrative to people born after 1995 up until 2009 (this is the prime recruitment generation) for these scumbags.
If we apply the Borum's Four-Stage Model of the Terrorist Mindset - we need to intervene in countering extremist narrative at the third stage of the grievance = "me vs them" ladder.
Despite the noise, we do have a good understanding of the drivers that cause people to move from "disillusioned and disenfranchised" to "disgruntled" through to the "activist" stage - this is the stage where you need to counter the toxic narrative though a number of
confidence building measures in the community which can range from inclusion in the democratic process and to build a sense of "ownership" for the communities and a unified identity.
What is required now is for the larger public to understand the
"bigger picture" which is a working strategy which needs to consist of
education, information, communication, prevention, protection, engagement and enforcement.
Overall let me say this with a degree of conviction that the newer generation of youth are largely indolent and disengaged with politics and ethno-centric resistance, we can thank social media for this (blessing and a curse) .
It is this generation we (Pakistan) need to target through a concentrated I.C.E (Information, Communication and Education) effort. As cliche as it may sound, we need more of this:
But we also must act smart, engage social media platforms that are frequented by the youth of Pakistan today. More effort should be placed to develop curated content for dissemination beyond Facebook and twitter through catchy and engaging Youtube short and TikTok video content:
Most of the videos and content pushed out so far are bland made by older generation of producers who are not savvy to the limited attention span of our youth today. The average attention span of a user is less than 2 seconds - that is the time the content creator has to grab the users attention.
This is why moving beyond scripted and high price tag productions to short snappy and catchy curated content on countering extremist narratives is so important in this digital age. NACTA and Pakistan should adopt the UK Contest CVE/CT Strategy which has been largely effective:
