On Wednesday 23 November, 2022, 10:00-11:30 CET, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) hosted a Live Webinar for the release of the book ‘Masculinity and Violent Extremism’.
Violent extremist groups and networks are proliferating across the globe. To understand them and to prevent violent extremist acts, we must pay attention to masculinity. Masculinity defines the social expectations of manhood and the social structuring of hierarchies based on the privileging of what is considered masculine and the devaluation of that considered feminine. The participants in violent extremist groups are often men, but beyond this, such groups’ origins, ideologies internal processes and means of recruitment are tied in powerful ways to masculinity. Violent extremist groups often draw on and intensify ideologies of misogyny or women-hating that are already present in society.
This webinar brought together Josh Roose, Michael Flood and Mark Alfano, three of the authors of the recently released book ‘Masculinity and Violent Extremism’. They explored men’s motivations to support or participate in violent extremist groups and commit violent political acts.
Moderator:
Joana Cook, Editor-in-Chief at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism
Speakers:
Josh Roose, political sociologist and Senior Research Fellow in Politics and Religion at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, Melbourne. His research focuses on the intersection political and religious violence, masculinities and citizenship. He is currently a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded study The Far Right: Intellectuals, Masculinity and Citizenship (2021-2023) and lead Chief Investigator of the ARC funded project Anti-Women online Movements; Pathways and Patterns of Participation (2022-2025). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Centre for Counterterrorism (ICCT) at the Hague. His recent books include: Masculinity and Violent Extremism (2022) The New Demagogues: Religion, Masculinity and the New Populism (2020) Political Islam and Masculinity: Australian Muslim Men (2015).
Michael Flood, Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology School of Justice. He is an internationally recognised researcher on men, masculinities, and gender, violence against women, and violence prevention. Professor Flood has made significant contributions to scholarly and public understanding of men’s involvements in preventing violence against women and building gender equality, and to scholarship and programming regarding violence and violence prevention. He is the author of Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention (2019), the co-author of Masculinity and Violent Extremism (2022), and the lead editor of Engaging Men in Building Gender Equality (2015) and The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities (2007). He is also an advocate and educator.
Mark Alfano, American philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. He does work in philosophy (epistemology, moral psychology, philosophy of science), social science (personality psychology, social psychology), and computer science (ethics and epistemology of algorithms). He also brings digital humanities methods to bear on both contemporary problems and the history of philosophy.
