De-recidivism, not de-radicalisation: Understanding the cognitive ‎process among de-radicalised Indonesian terrorist returnees

Abstract

Against the looming public scepticism towards de-radicalisation, this paper argues for the reform of de-radicalisation programme from an effort to change terrorist’s worldview toward one that focuses on preventing terrorist recidivism. It contends that the lacklustre result of mainstream de-radicalisation programme can be attributed to its flawed assumption in viewing terrorist motivation as purely psychological without paying attention to the social context. To remedy this flaw, it takes inspirations from French theories to propose a new approach dubbed de-recidivism to understand the cognitive process and the social dynamics that lead individuals to quit terrorism. It then demonstrates how de-recidivism can be applied by analysing the experienceof 20 Indonesian terrorist returnees who have decided to quit terrorism voluntarily. It concludes that in order to prevent terrorist recidivism, a de-recidivism-inspired programme must be able to create a condition that (1) enables individuals to deconstruct their terrorist ideology, (2) decolonise themselves from the cognitive clutch of their ideologues, and by way of (3) decapitalising the latter’s modality in the social field.