Kilcullen on Islamic radicalization in Europe

by Peter Hodge | Jun 5, 2009 | Conflict and security, Europe and Central Asia, Influence and networks

Last week Alex mentioned that Global Dashboard is a “hotbed of David Kilcullen fandom”. Bravo! I’m a fan too, and I’ve been reading Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerrilla over the last couple of weeks.

In the book Kilcullen writes at length about counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also looks at guerrilla warfare in East Timor, Pakistan and southern Thailand (the long-running Malay separatist struggle). Another interesting section deals with Islamic radicalization in Europe. “Europe has no remote ‘safe havens’ outside state control”, Kilcullen writes. “But it does have ‘micro-havens’ – urban undergrounds, alienated ethnic groups, and slums where the writ of government does not always run”.

Kilcullen argues that Europeans should take a counter-subversion approach to Islamic radicalization (rather than counter-terrorism). The authorities should work with vulnerable communities to “rebuild community cohesion and authority structures”, so as to marginalize and drive out radical elements. Attacking radical networks would be a secondary and defensive measure “designed to create a breathing space in which the construction of friendly, trusted networks can proceed”.

I believe that an added benefit of this strategy is that it creates situations for governments to tap the knowledge that migrants have of their homelands – knowledge of society, culture, languages, politics, the economy, business and so on. Such information could, for example, greatly benefit intelligence agencies (who study and interpret developments in other regions), military units deploying to foreign countries, and corporations and trade delegations pursing business deals overseas.

Kilcullen rightly says that we should see Europe’s Muslim communities as a target of terrorist-sponsored subversion, not as a source of threat to European society. But let’s take that a step further and consider the opportunities that strong and integrated Muslim communities (and other migrant groups) might offer society.