Revisit a lecture by ICCT Research Fellow Dr. Alex P. Schmid about terrorism narratives, given in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 27 October 2015.
Dr. Schmid argues that groups like so-called Islamic State (IS) derive their strength from grand narratives embedded in their ideology and disseminate these through sophisticated propaganda campaigns. Those groups fighting IS, while countering the threat through military force, continuously fail to counter IS' narratives, which is equally - if not more - important. According to Dr. Schmid, there is a great need to ensure that retrospective visions of religious fanatics are countered with progressive narratives, if groups like IS are not only to be defeated - but are also stopped from developing in the first place.
Read the transcript of the lecture.