Over 800 Terrorist Interviews: What I Learned — Anne Speckhard

14. 2. 2023

A scholar who has interviewed more than 800 terrorists worldwide, helped to establish rehabilitation programmes in Iraq, and worked with leading international institutions to understand terrorism, extremism and hate crime, Dr Anne Speckhard brings a uniquely informed perspective to this discussion. This episode of The IR thinker features an in-depth conversation with Dr Speckhard on the drivers of terrorism and extremism, and the possibilities – and limits – of rehabilitation.

Anne Speckhard

Anne Speckhard, PhD, is Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE), Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and an Affiliate of Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies. She has interviewed more than 800 terrorists, violent extremists and their family members worldwide, and created ICSVE’s Breaking the ISIS Brand and Escape Hate counter-narrative projects that use first-hand testimonies to undermine extremist recruitment. An authority on the psychology of terrorism, as well as on rehabilitation and repatriation, she has advised governments, international organisations and security agencies including NATO, the OSCE, United Nations bodies and multiple national law-enforcement services. Dr Speckhard is the author of five books, including Homegrown Hate and Talking to Terrorists, and is a frequent media commentator on terrorism and extremism.

Content

00:00 - Introduction and Anne’s background
04:55 - First interview with a terrorist
07:22 - First interview questions and preparation
10:27 - Being a woman while interviewing terrorists
11:58 - Conditions for interviewing terrorists
14:11 - Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq
19:59 - Breaking the ISIS Brand Counternarratives Project
25:54 - Surprising ISIS propaganda elements
28:29 - 4 things making a terrorist
30:49 - Women as terrorists
34:24 - Women’s motivation to join terrorist groups
38:12 - Anne’s new book and a review of three chapters
50:47 - The US and European extremism similarities and differences
53:32 - Emerging trends in extremism
55:53 - The US effort to tackle extremism at the present
58:05 - International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism