Composite Violent Extremism: Conceptualizing Attackers Who Increasingly Challenge Traditional Categories of Terrorism

Abstract

Scholars and counterterrorism practitioners have expressed increasing concern over violent extremists who display an amalgamation of disparate beliefs, interests, and grievances. Despite a proliferation of labels like “salad bar extremism,” consensus on the nature of the problem is lacking and current understandings risk conflating what are in fact distinct types of extremism. Building on current literature and a detailed dataset, this article presents a new conceptual framework for understanding this phenomenon, consisting of an overarching concept of composite violent extremism (CoVE) and underlying typologies of ambiguous, mixed, fused, and convergent violent extremism. The article then proposes explanations for the apparent increase in these radicalization patterns.

Acknowledgments

The authors are deeply grateful for Matt Chauvin, Sara Downing, and Megan Proudfoot’s efforts in the research and early conceptualization of the composite violent extremism phenomenon. The development of composite violent extremism could not have happened without your hours of research, frankness in debate, and humor that made this one of the most enjoyable and collaborative projects we have ever undertaken.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Christopher Wray, “Hearing on Global Threats,” testimony before House Select Intelligence Committee, April 15, 2021.

2 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence (September 2019); United Kingdom Home Office, “User Guide to: Individuals Referred to and Supported Through the Prevent Programme, England and Wales,” November 18, 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/user-guide-to-individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-england-and-wales/user-guide-to-individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-england-and-wales; Paul Farrell, “NSW Police Establish ‘Fixated Persons’ Unit to Help Counter Lone Wolf Terror Attacks,” The Guardian (London), April 26, 2017; John Silvester, "How police prevent obsessives, pathologically wronged from doing harm", The Age (Melbourne), March 12, 2021.

3 A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Funding Request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Before Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, 117th Cong. (2022) (statement of Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation); Hearing on Global Threats, Before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, 116th Cong. (2020) (statement of Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

4 A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Funding Request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

5 See, for example, “Brooklyn Subway Shooting Live Updates: ‘My Fellow New Yorkers, We Got Him,’ Mayor Eric Adams Hails Subway Arrest,” New York Post, April 14, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/04/12/brooklyn-subway-shooting-live-updates-of-nyc-attack/; Jonah E. Bromwich, Ashley Southall, Ali Watkins and Kirsten Noyes, “Suspect Drifted from City to City as His Videos Hinted at Violence,” The New York Times, April 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/nyregion/frank-james-subway-shooting.html.

6 Kat Bouza, “‘They Made Me More Dangerous Than Anyone Could Ever F-cking Imagine,’” Rolling Stone, April 13, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/frank-james-new-york-brooklyn-subway-shooting-social-media-posts-1336740/.

7 Michael Kunzelman, Michael Sisak, and Bernard Condon, “Police Search for Motive in Brooklyn Subway Suspect’s Videos,” ABC News, April 14, 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-search-motive-brooklyn-subway-suspects-videos-84074695.

8 See Julien Bellaiche, “Connecting the Fringes: Neo-Nazi Glorification of Salafi-Jihadi Representations Online,” Global Network on Extremism and Terrorism, August 24, 2021, https://gnet-research.org/2021/08/24/connecting-the-fringes-neo-nazi-glorification-of-salafi-jihadi-representations-online/; Ariel Koch, “The ONA Network and the Transnationalization of Neo-Nazi-Satanism,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2022), https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2021.2024944; Jesse J. Norris, “Idiosyncratic Terrorism: Disaggregating an Undertheorized Concept,” Perspectives on Terrorism 14, no. 3 (2020), https://www.jstor.org/stable/26918296; Milo Comerford and Sasha Havlicek, “Mainstreamed Extremism and the Future of Prevention” (ISD’s ‘Future of Extremism’ Series, London, 2021), https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ISD-Mainstreamed-extremism-and-the-future-of-prevention-3.pdf; Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Madeleine Blackman, “Fluidity of the Fringes: Prior Extremist Involvement as a Radicalization Pathway,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2019), https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1531545; Paige Pascarelli, “Ideology à la Carte: Why Lone Actor Terrorists Choose and Fuse Ideologies,” Lawfare, October 2, 2016, https://www.lawfareblog.com/ideology-%C3%A0-la-carte-why-lone-actor-terrorists-choose-and-fuse-ideologies; Kurt Braddock, Brian Hughes, and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, “Opinion: The Post-9/11 Fight Against Extremism Must Take On Propagandists’ Tricks, Not Just Ideology,” MarketWatch, September 11, 2021, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-post-9-11-fight-against-extremism-must-expand-to-attitudinal-inoculation-11631285779.

9 Ramon Spaaij, Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism: Global Patterns, Motivations and Prevention (Springer Science & Business Media, 2011); Mark S. Hamm and Ramón Spaaij, The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism (Columbia University Press, 2017); Paul Gill, James Silver, John Horgan, Emily Corner, and Noémie Bouhana, “Similar Crimes, Similar Behaviors?: Comparing Lone-Actor Terrorists and Public Mass Murderers,” Journal of Forensic Sciences 66, no. 5 (2021): 1797–804, https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.14793; Edwin Bakker and Beatrice de Graaf, “Preventing Lone Wolf Terrorism: Some CT Approaches Addressed,” Perspectives on Terrorism 5, no. 5/6 (2011): 43–50.

10 See, for example, Peter R Neumann, "The trouble with radicalization”, International Affairs, 89, no. 4 (2013), 873–93; Matthew Francis, "Radical ideology isn’t what makes extremists turn violent", The Conversation, May 23, 2014 https://theconversation.com/radical-ideology-isnt-what-makes-extremists-turn-violent-27006; Mohammed Hafez and Creighton Mullins, “The Radicalization Puzzle: A Theoretical Synthesis of Empirical Approaches to Homegrown Extremism”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38, no. 11 (2015): 958–75; Donald Holbrook and John Horgan, “Terrorism and Ideology: Cracking the Nut,” Perspectives on Terrorism 13, no. 6 (2019): 2–15; Lorne L. Dawson, “Taking Terrorist Accounts of Their Motivations Seriously: An Exploration of the Hermeneutics of Suspicion,” Perspectives on Terrorism 13, no. 5 (2019): 74–89.

11 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence (September 2019), 11.

12 Ibid., 4.

13 Ibid.

14 Mark Townsend, “Anti-Terrorism Programme Must Keep Focus on Far Right, Say Experts,” Guardian (London), May 22, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/22/anti-terrorism-programme-must-keep-focus-on-far-right-say-experts.

15 United Kingdom Home Office, “User Guide to: Individuals Referred to and Supported Through the Prevent Programme, England and Wales,” November 18, 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/user-guide-to-individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-england-and-wales/user-guide-to-individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-england-and-wales.

16 Michele T. Pathé, Timothy Lowry, Debbie J. Haworth, Danae M. Webster, Melodie J. Mulder, Paul Winterbourne, and Colin J. Briggs, “Assessing and Managing the Threat Posed by Fixated Persons in Australia,” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 26, no. 4 (2015): 425-438, DOI: 10.1080/14789949.2015.1037332.

17 Ibid., 426.

18 Ibid., 425–38.

19 Paul Farrell, “NSW Police Establish ‘Fixated Persons’ Unit to Help Counter Lone Wolf Terror Attacks,” The Guardian (London), April 26, 2017; Premier of Victoria, “New Threat Assessment Centre to Keep Victorians Safe,” October 3, 2017, https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-threat-assessment-centre-to-keep-victorians-safe.

20 Max Kutner, “The Surprising Convergence Between Neo-Nazis and Jihadis,” Just Security, July 17, 2020. https://www.justsecurity.org/71470/the-surprising-convergence-between-neo-nazis-and-jihadis/; Julien Bellaiche, “Connecting the Fringes: Neo-Nazi Glorification of Salafi-Jihadi Representations Online,” Global Network on Extremism and Terrorism, August 24, 2021, https://gnet-research.org/2021/08/24/connecting-the-fringes-neo-nazi-glorification-of-salafi-jihadi-representations-online/; Colin Clarke, “Trends in Terrorism: What’s on the Horizon in 2022?,” Foreign Policy Research Institute, December 8, 2021, https://www.fpri.org/article/2021/12/trends-in-terrorism-whats-on-the-horizon-in-2022/; Cynthia Miller-Idriss & Brian Hughes, “Blurry Ideologies and Strange Coalitions: The Evolving Landscape of Domestic Extremism,” Lawfare, December 19, 2021, https://www.lawfareblog.com/blurry-ideologies-and-strange-coalitions-evolving-landscape-domestic-extremism; Jakob Guhl, Moustafa Ayad, and Julia Ebner, “From The Vicious Cycle To Ideological Convergence,” VoxPol, January 26, 2022, https://www.voxpol.eu/from-the-vicious-cycle-to-ideological-convergence/.

21 The aim was descriptive rather than explanatory typology, as explanatory typologies (which visually represent causal factors and outcomes) are unsuited for early efforts at conceptualization that stop short of theorization. Jacob Aasland Ravndal, “Thugs or Terrorists?: A Typology of Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence in Western Europe,” Journal for Deradicalization 15, no. 3 (Summer 2015): 5–8; D. Collier, J. LaPorte, and J. Seawright, “Putting Typologies to Work: Concept Formation, Measurement, and Analytic Rigor,” Political Research Quarterly 65, no. 1 (2012): 218, https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912912437162.

22 “Composite,” Oxford English Dictionary Online, n.d.

23 Jonathan Leader Maynard, “Ideology and Armed Conflict,” Journal of Peace Research 56, no. 5 (2019): 637.

24 “Columbiners” refers to the subcultures that display an obsession with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado. Columbiners generally evince a fixation with shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, expressing admiration for their actions and, at times, a desire to emulate them. See Manny Fernandez, Julie Turkewitz & Jess Bidgood, “For ‘Columbiners,’ School Shootings Have a Deadly Allure,” New York Times, May 30, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/school-shootings-columbine.html. Functional ideologies were only evident in roughly 10% of cases in the dataset.

25 Maynard, “Ideology and Armed Conflict,” 637.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 “Oregon Safeway Shooter Claimed Inspiration from Columbine, Expressed Harsh Resentment Toward Women,” SITE Intelligence Group, August 29, 2022, https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/oregon-safeway-shooter-claimed-inspiration-from-columbine-expressed-resentment-toward-women.htm; Jessica McBride, “Ethan Miller, Bend Safeway Shooter: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” Heavy, August 29, 2022, https://heavy.com/news/ethan-miller-bend-safeway-shooter/.

29 Paul Murphy, “Exclusive: Group Chat Messages Show School Shooter Obsessed with Race, Violence and Guns,” CNN, February 18, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/16/us/exclusive-school-shooter-instagram-group.

30 Ibid.; Law & Crime Network, Twitter Post, July 6, 2022, 12:15 p.m., https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetwork/status/1544716552641122308; Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, “Cruz Cell Phone Content and Internet Searches,” PowerPoint Slides, November 8, 2018, https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/Cruz-Cell-Phone-Content-and-Internet-Searches.pdf.

31 Broward Sheriff’s Office, “Case Supplemental Report,” August 9, 2018, https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/Broward_Sheriffs_Office_Documents.pdf; Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, “Cruz Cell Phone Content and Internet Searches,” PowerPoint Slides, November 8, 2018; Terry Spencer, “Parkland School Shooter’s Swastika Carvings Are Focus of U.S. Court Fight,” Times of Israel, July 7, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/parkland-school-shooters-swastika-carvings-are-focus-of-court-fight/; Gregory Richter and Ariana Richter, “The Incel Killer and the Threat to the Campus Community,” Security Magazine, March 12, 2019, https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/89962-the-incel-killer-and-the-threat-to-the-campus-community. 

32 Associated Press, “Suspect Arrested Over Easter Linked to French Church Plot,” ABC News, April 8, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suspect-arrested-easter-linked-french-church-plot-76940976; Jérémie Pham-Lê, “‘Je Voulais Mettre Cette Bombe dans l’Eglise’: Révélations sur L’Adolescente de Béziers qui Projetait un Attentat” [‘I wanted to put this bomb in the church’: revelations about the teenager from Béziers who planned an attack],” Le Parisien (Paris), April 17, 2021, https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/je-voulais-mettre-cette-bombe-dans-leglise-revelations-sur-ladolescente-de-beziers-qui-projetait-un-attentat-17-04-2021-TH7TMLMZB5DXXBQHSK7V7PTD54.php.

33 “Enquête pour ‘Association de Malfaiteurs Terroriste’ a Béziers : La Suspecte Mise en Examen et Écrouée” [Investigation for ‘terrorist criminal association’ in Béziers: the suspect indicted and imprisoned],” Le Monde, April 8, 2021, https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2021/04/08/enquete-pour-association-de-malfaiteurs-terroriste-a-beziers-des-elements-de-radicalisation-retrouves-chez-l-une-des-suspectes_6076012_3224.html; Pham-Lê, “‘Je Voulais Mettre Cette Bombe dans l’Eglise,’”; Ronan Folgoas and Jérémie Pham-Lê, “‘Je Veux Faire Pire Que Columbine’: le Projet ee Tuerie de Masse d’un Adorateur d’Hitler Déjoué par la Dgsi” [‘I want to do worse than Columbine’: the mass murder plan of a Hitler worshiper foiled by the DGSI], Le Parisien, October 2, 2021, https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/je-veux-faire-pire-que-columbine-le-projet-de-tuerie-de-masse-dun-normand-adorateur-dhitler-dejoue-par-la-dgsi-02-10-2021-KPUTTZCGGVB5HKN4PYGAUWFT5M.php.

34 Pham-Lê, “‘Je Voulais Mettre Cette Bombe dans l’Eglise.’”

35 Paolo Frosina, “Il Delirio del Suprematista di Savona: ‘Hitler Come Cristo Guida Luce’. La Missione di una Guerra la Razziale ‘Contro Negri E Degenerati’ [The delirium of the supremacist from Savona: ‘Hitler as Christ guides light’. The mission of a racial war ‘against negroes and degenerates’],” Il Fatto Quotidiano, January 23, 2021, https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2021/01/23/il-delirio-del-suprematista-di-savona-hitler-come-cristo-guida-luce-la-missione-di-una-guerra-la-razziale-contro-negri-e-degenerati/6075257/.

36 Ministry of the Interior of Italy, Polizia di Stato, press release, “Terrorismo: Arrestato 22enne Suprematista e Negazionista [Terrorism: 22-year-old arrested for supremacist propaganda],” January 22, 2021, https://www.italpress.com/terrorismo-arrestato-un-22enne-per-propaganda-suprematista/.

37 Francesco Marone, “Black Sun: A Case of Radicalization Between Neo-Nazism and Incel Ideology,” Italian Institute for International Political Studies, January 27, 2021, https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/black-sun-case-radicalization-between-neo-nazism-and-incel-ideology-29063.

38 “Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Bratton Provide an Update on the Assault of Two Police Officers,” NYC.gov, October 24, 2014, https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/897-14/transcript-mayor-de-blasio-commissioner-bratton-provide-update-the-assault-two-police; Jonathan Dienst, “Hatchet Attack on NYPD Officers Was ‘Act of Terror’: FBI Director,” NBC New York, November 17, 2014, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/hatchet-attack-nypd-officers-act-of-terror-fbi-director-james-comey/844450/. 

39 James Gordon Meek and Josh Margolin, “NYC Ax Attacker Was Consumed by Desire to Strike U.S. Authority Figures, Police Say,” ABC News, November 3, 2014, https://abcnews.go.com/US/nyc-ax-attacker-consumed-desire-strike-us-authority/story?id=26664787; Alexanda Klausner, Kieran Corcoran, David Martosko, and Sophie Jane Evans, “Armed and Radicalized: Ranting ‘Self-Proclaimed Convert’ New York Hatchet Attacker was a ‘Terrorist’, Say Police,” Daily Mail, October 24, 2014, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2806731/Was-terror-attack-Police-probe-extremist-links-online-rants-New-York-hatchet-attacker-emerge-shot-dead-attack-group-cops-Queens.html; “Terror Connection Not Ruled Out in Hatchet Attack, Police Say,” Fox News, November 21, 2015, https://www.foxnews.com/us/terror-connection-not-ruled-out-in-hatchet-attack-police-say; “Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers,” FBI, August 3, 2017, https://privacysos.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FBI-BlackIdentityExtremists.pdf; Michael Schwirtz and William K. Rashbaum, “Attacker With Hatchet is Said to Have Grown Radical on His Own,” New York Times, October 24, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/nyregion/man-who-attacked-police-with-hatchet-ranted-about-us-officials-say.html; Priscilla DeGregory, Kevin Sheehan, and Kirstan Conley, “Black Panther Hails Ax Attack on Cops,” New York Post, October 27, 2014, https://nypost.com/2014/10/27/new-black-panther-group-hails-ax-attacker/.  

40 Lizzie Dearden, “One of UK’s Youngest Terror Plotters Named After Losing Anonymity Battle,” The Independent, January 11, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/neo-nazi-terror-plot-durham-jack-reed-b1785650.html.

41 Faye Brown, “Terrifying Drawings Found in Bedroom of Neo-Nazi, 16, Convicted of Terrorism,” Metro, November 20, 2019, https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/20/terrifying-drawings-found-bedroom-neo-nazi-16-convicted-terrorism-11189596/.

42 Ibid.

43 Daniel De Simone, “Durham Teen Neo-Nazi Became ‘Living Dead,’” BBC, November 22, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-50397477; Brown, “Terrifying Drawings Found in Bedroom of Neo-Nazi.”

44 National Threat Assessment Center, “Hot Yoga Tallahassee: A Case Study of Misogynistic Extremism,” (Washington DC: U.S. Secret Service, March 2021), https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2022-03/NTAC%20Case%20Study%20-%20Hot%20Yoga%20Tallahassee_0.pdf.

45 See for example, Scott Beierle, “American Whore,” archived November 4, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20181104002705mp_/https://pathofdefiance.com/american-whore; Scott Beierle, “I’m Dreaming…,” archived November 4, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20181104002542mp_/https://pathofdefiance.com/4-i-m-dreaming; Scott Beierle, “American Burden,” archived November 4, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20181104001746mp_/https://pathofdefiance.com/8-american-burden; Scott Beierle, “To Arms!,” archived November 4, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20181104000923/https://pathofdefiance.com/to-arms

46 Thomas Wilberg, FBI Special Agent, Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, United States v. Solomon, 0:20-cr-00193-MJD-ECW (September 3, 2020), 8, 14, https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Solomon%20Teeter%20Affidavit%20%26%20Criminal%20Complaint.pdf.

47 U.S. Department of Justice, press release, “Two Self-Described ‘Boogaloo Bois’ Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to Hamas,” September 4, 2020, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-self-described-boogaloo-bois-charged-attempting-provide-material-support-hamas.

48 Affidavit in Support of Complaint and Arrest Warrant, United States v. Joseph, (S.D. Ohio, 2018), https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Joseph%20Affidavit%20in%20Support%20of%20Complaint%20and%20Arrest%20Warrant%202018.pdf.

49 Gary A. Ackerman and Jeffrey M. Bale, “The Potential for Collaboration between Islamists and Western Left-Wing Extremists: A Theoretical and Empirical Introduction,” Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 5, no. 3 (2012), 151–71.

50 Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, "Extremism’s Strange Bedfellows,” Project Syndicate, April 5, 2016, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/radical-islamist-extreme-right-links-by-diego-gambetta-and-steffen-hertog-2016-04.

51 Jessica Stern, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 172.

52 “New Prevent Statistics Warn of Increase in Young Men Becoming Fixated on Violent Extremism,” United Kingdom Counter Terrorism Policing, November 27, 2020, https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/new-prevent-statistics-warn-of-increase-in-young-men-becoming-fixated-on-violent-extremism/.

53 Kurt Braddock, Brian Hughes and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, “The Post-9/11 Fight Against Extremism Must Take on Propagandists’ Tricks, Not Just Ideology,” MarketWatch, September 11, 2021, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-post-9-11-fight-against-extremism-must-expand-to-attitudinal-inoculation-11631285779.

54 Statement of Brian Levin before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, “Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremism: Examining the Threat of Racially, Ethnically, Religiously, and Politically Motivated Attacks, Part II,” August 5, 2021, http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/testimony-levin-2021-08-05.

55 Jakob Guhl, Moustafa Ayad & Julia Ebner, “From The Vicious Cycle To Ideological Convergence,” VoxPol, January 26, 2022, https://www.voxpol.eu/from-the-vicious-cycle-to-ideological-convergence/.

56 Cynthia Miller-Idriss & Brian Hughes, “Blurry Ideologies and Strange Coalitions: The Evolving Landscape of Domestic Extremism,” Lawfare, December 19, 2021, https://www.lawfareblog.com/blurry-ideologies-and-strange-coalitions-evolving-landscape-domestic-extremism.

57 Elisa Shearer, “More than Eight-In-Ten Americans Get News from Digital Devices,” Pew Research, January 12, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/.

58 Adrian Lüders, Alejandro Dinkelberg, and Michael Quayle, “Becoming ‘Us’ in Digital Spaces: How Online Users Creatively and Strategically Exploit Social Media Affordances to Build up Social Identity,” Acta Psychologica 228 (August 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103643.

59 Jordan Bonaparte, interview with Lindsay Souvannarath, “The Story of Lindsay Souvannarath - 2 - Life Before Choosing Death,” Night Time, podcast audio, February 7, 2019, https://www.nighttimepodcast.com/episodes/lindsay-souvannarath-2.

60 Ibid.

61 Jordan Bonaparte, interview with Lindsay Souvannarath, “The Story of Lindsay Souvannarath - 3 - Lindsay, James, and the Valentine’s Day Massacre,” Night Time, podcast audio, February 15, 2019, https://www.nighttimepodcast.com/episodes/lindsay-souvannarath-3.

62 The Canadian Border Services Agency detained Souvannarath based on an anonymous tip and lack of return ticket and luggage. See R v. Lindsay Kanitha Souvannarath (2018), NSSC 96, https://www.dailyherald.com/assets/PDF/R.%20v.%20Souvannarath%20-%20Nova%20Scotia%20Courts.pdf; Mack Lamoureux, “The Woman Who Plotted a Valentine’s Mass Murder Shares How the Internet Radicalized Her,” Vice, February 21, 2019, https://www.vice.com/en/article/eve54j/the-woman-who-plotted-a-valentines-mass-murder-shares-how-the-internet-radicalized-her.

63 Michael Mazarr, Abigail Casey, Alyssa Demus, Scott W. Harold, Luke J. Matthews, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, and James Sladden, Hostile Social Manipulation: Present Realities and Emerging Trends (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2019), https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2713.html; Michael J. Mazarr, Ryan Bauer, Abigail Casey, Sarah Heintz, Luke J. Matthews, The Emerging Risk of Virtual Societal Warfare: Social Manipulation in a Changing Information Environment (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2019), https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2714.html.

64 Timothy Clancy, Bland Addison, Oleg Pavlov, and Khalid Saeed, “Contingencies of Violent Radicalization: The Terror Contagion Simulation,” Systems 9, no. 90 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3390/systems9040090.

65 Christopher Wray, “Hearing on Global Threats,” testimony before House Select Intelligence Committee, April 15, 2021.

66 Jérémie Pham-Lê, “‘Je Voulais Mettre Cette Bombe dans l’Eglise’ : Révélations sur l’Adolescente de Béziers qui Projetait un Attentat” [‘I wanted to put this bomb in the church’: revelations about the teenager from Béziers who planned an attack],” Le Parisien, April 17, 2021, https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/je-voulais-mettre-cette-bombe-dans-leglise-revelations-sur-ladolescente-de-beziers-qui-projetait-un-attentat-17-04-2021-TH7TMLMZB5DXXBQHSK7V7PTD54.php.

67 Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Emelie Chace-Donahue, “The Order of Nine Angles: Cosmology, Practice & Movement” (forthcoming in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism).

68 Simon Purdue, “Ideological Nihilism and Aesthetic Violence: Mass Shooters and Online Antisocial Subcultures,” Global Network on Extremism & Technology, July 13, 2022, https://gnet-research.org/2022/07/13/ideological-nihilism-and-aesthetic-violence-mass-shooters-and-online-antisocial-subcultures/.

69 Cynthia Miller-Idriss & Brian Hughes, “Blurry Ideologies and Strange Coalitions: The Evolving Landscape of Domestic Extremism,” Lawfare, December 19, 2021, https://www.lawfareblog.com/blurry-ideologies-and-strange-coalitions-evolving-landscape-domestic-extremism.

70 Kelly Weill, “Satanism Drama is Tearing Apart the Murderous Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen,” The Daily Beast, March 21, 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/satanism-drama-is-tearing-apart-the-murderous-neo-nazi-group-atomwaffen; “Neo-Nazis Denounce Occultists Associated with Terror Plot, Favor Optics-Friendly Groups,” SITE Intelligence Group, June 25, 2020, https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/neo-nazis-denounce-occultists-associated-with-terror-plot-favor-optics-friendly-groups.html; Lizzie Dearden, “Student Who Founded Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups Convicted of Terror Offences,” The Independent, July 11, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/andrew-dymock-srn-sonnenkrieg-nazi-b1864321.html.

71 “Global, Connected and Decentralized,” The Current 2 (2021), https://jigsaw.google.com/the-current/white-supremacy/the-problem/.

72 Bruce Hoffman, “The Next American Terrorist,” Cipher Brief, July 2, 2020, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/united-states/the-next-american-terrorist.

73 Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Madeleine Blackman, “Fluidity of the Fringes: Prior Extremist Involvement as a Radicalization Pathway,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2019), 1, 6, 17, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1531545.

74 Ari Shapiro, Matt Ozug, and Casey Morell, “The Far-Right and Environmentalism Overlap is Bigger than You Think—and Growing,” NPR, April 1, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089990539/climate-change-politics.