Executive summary
This report sets out research findings on what makes young Syrians vulnerable to recruitment by violent extremist groups in the Syrian conflict and explores sources of resilience to mitigate that vulnerability. It considers which mitigation approaches will have the most impact and makes recommendations for policy-makers and humanitarian, development actors.
The report draws on data from a qualitative study examining the views and experiences of 311 young Syrians, their families and community members in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. The study also includes desktop research, inquiry into online forums, as well as monitoring and evaluation data from peace education project activities conducted in 13 locations. Participants include individuals previously involved in armed groups in Syria, those thinking of joining, friends and family members of fighters, teachers and social workers.
The research is focused on why Syrians join violent extremist groups, specifically Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). The motivations for foreign fighters to join extremist groups in Syria was not the focus of this research.
Drivers of vulnerability
Vulnerability among young Syrians is being generated by an absence of a means to serve basic human needs. In many instances, violent extremist groups are effectively meeting these needs.
The most vulnerable groups are adolescent boys and young men between the ages of 12 and 24, children and young adults who are not in education, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees without supportive family structures and networks.
Radicalisation is not an explanation for joining a violent extremist group per se. For Syrians, belief in extreme ideologies appears to be – at most – a secondary factor in the decision to join an extremist group. Religion is providing a moral medium for coping and justification for fighting, rather than a basis for rigid and extreme ideologies.
The ongoing conflict creates the conditions upon which all vulnerability and resilience factors act. Addressing these factors without addressing the ongoing conflict is unlikely to succeed in preventing violent extremism in the long term.
The main factors that drive vulnerability are:
lack of economic opportunity;
disruptive social context and experiences of violence, displacement, trauma and loss;
deprivation of personal psychological needs for efficacy, autonomy and purpose; and
degradation of education infrastructure and opportunities to learn.
Resilience factors
Resilience exists to the extent that the vulnerability factors are addressed in combination (that is, one factor alone will not provide resilience). Alert’s research suggests that the main factors that underpin resilience are:
alternative and respected sources of livelihood outside of armed groups, which give individuals a sense of purpose and dignity;
access to comprehensive, holistic and quality education in Syria and in neighbouring countries;
access to supportive and positive social networks and institutions that can provide psychosocial support, mentors, role models and options for the development of non-violent social identities; and
avenues for exercising agency and non-violent activism that provide individuals with a sense of autonomy and control over their lives, as well as a way to make sense of their experiences.