New England Journal of Public Policy Volume 29 | Issue 1 Article 6 3-20-2017 The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features—and Possible Policy Responses Kumar Ramakrishna S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp Part of the International Relations Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Public Policy Commons, and the Terrorism Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ramakrishna, Kumar (2017) "The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features—and Possible Policy Responses," New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 29 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol29/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in New England Journal of Public Policy by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. New England Journal of Public Policy The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features—and Possible Policy Responses Kumar Ramakrishna S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore This article examines the radicalization of young Southeast Asians into the violent extremism that characterizes the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). After situating ISIS within its wider and older Al Qaeda Islamist ideological milieu, the article sketches out the historical landscape of violent Islamist extremism in Southeast Asia. There it focuses on the Al Qaeda-affiliated, Indonesian-based but transnational Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, revealing how the emergence of ISIS has impacted JI’s evolutionary trajectory.