What’s in a Word? Revisiting the Role of Ideology in the Practice of and Scholarship on Countering Violent Extremism

Within the field of terrorism studies, the role of ideology as motivational driver in radicalization processes leading to violence is controversially discussed. Only very few attempts to move the discourse beyond a binary and narrow framing of ideology as a doctrinal belief system exist so far. Terrorism research, it appears, has yet to discover the rich and valuable insights from political psychology and philosophy that have studied ideologies for many decades. Similarly, the study and practice of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE), including deradicalization and disengagement, have also so far mostly operated with only a very rudimentary, binary and outdated understanding of ideology in the context of motivations to quit extremism and terrorism. This article charts the research landscape on ideology in political psychology and philosophy. It suggests a more nuanced understanding of ideology, which allows for P/CVE researchers and practitioners to access the intricate inner mechanisms of ideologies and to make significantly improved strategic decisions about which intervention methods with what goals and purposes can and should be applied to initiate and sustain motivation for deradicalization and disengagement through the use of the so called “ideological triangle” in combination with Michael Freeden’s morphology of ideologies concept.