Promoting Cognitive Complexity Among Violent Extremist Youth in Northern Pakistan
Ayub, Asma, et al. 2022. Journal of Strategic Security 15, no. 1: 14-53.
This source is an academic paper published by joint team from the University of Cambridge’s Psychology Department as well as Social Welfare, Academics, and Training for Pakistan, a Pakistani trust established to provide support for vulnerable youth in the country’s volatile Khyber and Swat districts. The piece focuses on the work of the Sabaoon Centre, a civilian deradicalisation facility targeting teenage members of violent extremist organisations (VEOs). As with other reintegration frameworks, such as those employed as part of UN DDR programmes deployed in post-conflict environments, the Sabaoon centre seeks to address structural push factors concerning a lack of employable skills and a limited education; what makes the centre’s approach unique, however, is its simultaneous emphasis on the psychological pull factors of participation in violent conflict. Key to this is the notion of integrative complexity, with the Sabaoon Centre leveraging a four-stage process to promote perspective taking and assist former militants in developing the cognitive skills needed to challenge the simplistic narratives which facilitate polarisation and VEO recruiting. The interventions begin through the superficial exploration of social dilemmas employing cultural themes and narratives similar, but not identical, to those experienced in daily Pakistani life. Following this, the interventions instigate conflict to provoke low complexity responses by the group, before prompting individuals to identify the range of values and emotions which underpin these dilemmas. This comprehensive approach has proven remarkably effective at preventing recidivism among former youth fighters, raising interesting implications regarding its applicability to the reintegration and rehabilitation of ex-combatants in international peacebuilding efforts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.15.1.1943