Abstract:
How do individuals become radicalized, turning into terrorists, insurgents, violent actors.Computational agent-based models of irregular warfare, internal war, domestic political violence, and related conflicts require violent agents capable of carrying out attacks. Rather than introducing such agents as an exogenous process, as a Deus ex machina, this paper presents an agent-based model where radicalization is generated as an emergent phenomenon from within a population of individuals. The model (tentatively called “MASONRadicalAgent’’) is based on a new process-based theory of individual radicalization and is implemented in the MASON simulation system. Our paper describes the underlying theory, model structure, and some preliminary results intended for demonstration.This modeling effort is part of a broader project for modeling conflict in complex polities by combining computational simulations and network models.
Description:
Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, March 16–19, 2011. Authors' affiliation: Center for Social Complexity and Department of Computational Social Science, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University.
