Mia Bloom, professor of political science and communication, and John Horgan, distinguished university professor of psychology, both from Georgia State University, are preeminent scholars of terrorism and political violence. Bloom is known for her contributions in the areas of suicide terrorism, as well as on gender and terrorism. Horgan has written extensively on the psychology of terrorism. More recently, he has developed models that depict pathways into and out of terrorism. Combining their unique points of view, they have written an excellent book on the alarming phenomenon of terrorist groups that target, mobilize, indoctrinate, and often launch children to carry out attacks on their behalf.
At the outset, the authors explain the complexity of researching and drawing sweeping theoretical conclusions on the topic. Yet, throughout the book, they offer a clear and accessible narrative. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the phenomenon and includes a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, along with the authors’ original research and analysis.
Both Bloom and Horgan have demonstrated in the past the value of fieldwork. They have researched conflict-torn areas, including Sri Lanka in the height of the civil war, Israel and Palestine during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and Northern Ireland. In this book, they rely on many of the cases that they studied in the past and on more recent fieldwork that they carried out in Pakistan.
To circumvent the difficulties of studying the case of the Islamic State (IS), which serves as their primary case study, Bloom and Horgan devised an original methodology. In addition to using multiple secondary sources, they diligently documented the Islamic State’s activities on social media. Further, they constructed a database that consists of the eulogies of children who died fighting for IS.
In addition to the significance of this topic, the book makes six major contributions to the study of political violence. First, the authors contextualize the discussion using both temporal and spatial comparisons. They begin by comparing child involvement in warfare and political violence. Then within the category of political violence, they discuss the differences between violent extremists and terrorist groups. Finally, they describe the variety of roles that children perform within terrorist organizations, from logistics missions to suicide operations. This approach is methodologically sound, enabling the exploration of different patterns of child involvement in organized violence. Moreover, by comparing terrorist groups to other organizations that use children in the context of organized violence, the authors successfully identify the mobilization and indoctrination patterns of veteran and more recent terrorist groups including the IRA, the Tamil Tigers, Hamas, the Taliban, and IS.
Second, Bloom and Horgan diverge from past attempts to offer monocausal explanations for terrorism-related phenomena. They discuss different macro- and micro-level theories and masterfully underscore the merits of the different perspectives both as stand-alone theories and in combination with other explanations. However, without diminishing the importance of these theories, they demonstrate the inevitable shortcomings of all-encompassing theories. Their sober and detailed discussion should serve as a compass for terrorism researchers who still search for elegant and parsimonious theories.
Third, aware of the significance of the contextual settings in which the groups have operated, they discuss the concept of culture in general and the “culture of martyrdom” in particular. By reintroducing “culture” as a powerful explanatory term, Bloom and Horgan provide another important service to the scholarly community. Culture, a concept that was at the heart of the discipline, has lost its allure in recent decades. Many political scientists who study conflict and terrorism have grown frustrated by the different meanings of the term, which according to the authors’ count has at least 164 definitions. As a result, in recent decades many researchers have been leaning toward more elegant economics-based theories and methods. For Bloom and Horgan these theories are insufficient. Although they are aware of the elusive and dynamic nature of the concept, they present a clear definition of culture as “a pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior based on social learning and symbols; and a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group” (p. 109).
Fourth, based on their definition of culture, the authors introduce a comprehensive discussion of the significance of socialization agents and processes. This discussion is important both for theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, as we experience new modes of social interactions, it is imperative to revisit questions such as how individuals, especially children and youth, gain political knowledge and why some commit to certain violent ideologies with fervor. Practically, as the authors show, leaders of violent extremist groups pay close attention to the socialization process through each of the known agents: the nuclear and extended family, the formal education system, peers, and the media (with an emphasis on social media). A close-knit community that shares experiences of collective trauma provides fertile ground for cultivating a sense of injustice, victimization, and anger. Through different agents of socialization, terrorist groups create and perpetuate an ethos of uncompromising struggle against the victimizer.
Fifth, the authors showcase the power of interdisciplinary research, incorporating theories and empirical findings from multiple disciplines. Insights from sociology and anthropology provide them with solid foundations to explore the similarities between cults, street gangs, and terrorist groups. Studies in criminology provide the basis for a comparison between recruitment tactics of terrorist groups and those that pedophiles use when they approach potential victims and try to build rapport with them. Using the ingroup versus outgroup concepts from the field of social psychology, the authors also successfully portray the mechanisms that build group cohesion and commitment.
Finally, Bloom and Horgan use the case of IS in general and the “Cubs of the Caliphate” (IS’s educational framework) in particular to demonstrate the rapidly changing landscape of terrorism. Leaders of violent extremist and terrorist groups know that cultures are malleable. They develop expertise in using narratives and symbols to infuse communities with their messages and often to forge a monolithic worldview and cultivate a culture of martyrdom. They are also media savvy. IS introduced new levels of sophistication in producing and disseminating content. The videos that the al-Furqan Media Foundation and al-Hayat Media Center produced, the audio messages of Al-Bayan radio, and the texts and photos that appeared on the online magazines Dar al-Islam and Dabiq have set a new bar for terrorist groups. So too has the group’s extensive use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok.
To conclude, Bloom and Horgan offer a tour de force of the critical issue of children and terrorism. Their book is a must-read for anyone interested in getting the full and disturbing picture of contemporary terrorism.
