Why Jihadis Switch: Social Ties, Ideological Affinity and Opportunity

Julie Chernov Hwang

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 2025, vol. 48, issue 6, 581-600

Abstract: What prompts individuals to leave an established extremist group to join a breakaway faction or splinter group? This phenomenon of inter-terrorist or inter-extremist group migration is under-studied. However, terrorists and extremists can and do migrate between groups, especially in those instances when the costs of exit are low. Using a systematic, iterative, inductive theoretical approach merging existing theory on fragmentation and defection with insights from deep fieldwork with 11 Islamist extremist groups in Indonesia between 2010 and 2019, this article identifies three mechanisms via which individuals migrate between extremist groups: social ties, ideological affinity, and opportunity. In doing so, it finds that Indonesian Islamist extremists rarely switch for the same reason each time; instead, their decisions are shaped by relationships, needs, and beliefs that evolve and shift over their lifecycle in that particular jihadi ecosystem.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2022.2124583

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