Internal Brakes on Violent Escalation: a Descriptive Typology FULL REPORT
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FEBRUARY 2019 The Internal Brakes on Violent Escalation: A Descriptive Typology FULL REPORT Joel Busher, Coventry University Donald Holbrook, University College London Graham Macklin, Oslo University We would like to thank the CREST team and stakeholders for their support and guidance throughout the course of this project. We would also like to thank Tam Sanger for their excellent transcription services, Rachel Monaghan for their comments on an earlier draft of this report, and the interviewees who kindly gave up their time to share their experiences and insights with us. This is the full report from the The Internal Brakes on Violent Escalation: A Descriptive Typology programme, funded by CREST. To find out more information about this programme, and to see other outputs from the team, visit: www.crestresearch.ac.uk/projects/internal-brakes-violent-escalation/ About CREST The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) is a national hub for understanding, countering and mitigating security threats. It is an independent centre, commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and funded in part by the UK security and intelligence agencies (ESRC Award: ES/N009614/1). www.crestresearch.ac.uk ©2019 CREST Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA licence. www.crestresearch.ac.uk/copyright TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................5 1.1 The typology ...................................................................................................................................................................5 1.2 Discussion and conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Proposed applications of this research ...................................................................................................................... 7 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................8 Read more ...................................................................................................................................................................................9 2. DEFINITION OF ‘INTERNAL BRAKES’ AND PROJECT SCOPE .............................................10 3. METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................................................................12 3.1 Case selection, data and analysis .............................................................................................................................12 3.2 Two important limitations and challenges .............................................................................................................. 13 4. BUILDING THE TYPOLOGY: THREE BASIC THEORETICAL IDEAS ....................................15 4.1 The logics of non- or limited violence ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.2 The proximity or distance of internal brakes to the act of violence .......................................................................17 4.3 The underlying difficulty of doing violence ..............................................................................................................18 5. A TYPOLOGY OF THE BRAKES ON VIOLENT ESCALATION.................................................20 5.1 Brake 1 .........................................................................................................................................................................22 5.2 Brake 2 .........................................................................................................................................................................24 5.3 Brake 3 ........................................................................................................................................................................26 5.4 Brake 4 .........................................................................................................................................................................29 5.5 BRAKE 5 ........................................................................................................................................................................31 6. CONCLUSIONS ..............................................................................................................................35 7. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................37 ANNEX A: TRANS-NATIONAL AND BRITISH JIHADI GROUPS FROM 2001 TO 2016 ............................42 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................42 2. Al-Muhajiroun and the removal of brakes ................................................................................................................44 3. Internal brakes in trans-national and British jihadi groups ....................................................................................47 4. Summary .....................................................................................................................................................................56 5. References ...................................................................................................................................................................57 ANNEX B: THE BRITISH EXTREME RIGHT IN THE 1990S .............................................................................60 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................60 2. Internal brakes on violence within the British extreme right ...............................................................................66 3. References ..................................................................................................................................................................80 ANNEX C: THE ANIMAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN THE UK, 1972-EARLY 2000S ..............................82 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................82 2. Internal Brakes in the Animal Liberation Movement ..............................................................................................87 3. Timeline ......................................................................................................................................................................102 4. References .................................................................................................................................................................106 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BUSHER , HOLBROOK & MACKLIN non-emergence of violence, how violence ends or declines, and intra-group dynamics during processes of EXECUTIVE escalation, de-escalation and non-escalation. SUMMARY 1.1 THE TYPOLOGY Why do some ‘extremists’ or ‘extremist groups’1 choose The typology is based around five underlying logics not to engage in violence, or only in particular forms of on which the internal brakes identified in this project violence? Why is it that even in deeply violent groups operate: there are often thresholds of violence that members rarely if ever cross? y Strategic logic Part of the answer will lie in the counter-measures y Moral logic deployed by state and non-state actors, and in other y The logic of ego maintenance external constraints that inhibit the opportunities, y The logic of out-group definition capabilities and motivation of such groups to deploy violence. Yet the fact that few if any groups carry out y Organisational logic as much violence as they are capable of indicates that in most cases external constraints comprise only part While these logics sometimes coincide with one of the answer. another, at other times they operate independently and sometimes appear even to contradict one another. Each The basic premise of this project is that another part of these underlying logics underpins a brake, which in of the answer lies in what we call the ‘internal brakes’ turn is associated with a series of ‘sub-brakes’. on violent escalation: the intra-group mechanisms through which group members themselves contribute BRAKE 1 to establish and maintain parameters on their own Identification of non- or less violent strategies of violence. action as being as or more effective than more violent alternatives (strategic logic). Such internal brakes are often evident in detailed accounts of decision-making within groups that use y 1a. Expressions of scepticism about their ability or flirt with violence, yet they are rarely examined to beat their opponents in a violent struggle, systematically. The aim of this project then was to including concerns that greater militancy will develop a descriptive typology of the internal brakes on increase backlash or repression from opponents or violent escalation that could provide a basis for more the state towards them and their supporters. systematic analysis of such brakes. y 1b. Expressions of concern that violent escalation We used