The Concept of “Radicalization”: an Overview of Scientific Approaches in Modern Foreign Literature

The article is devoted to the research of definition and the comparative analysis of characteristics of a number of concepts, such as “radicalism”, “radical” “radical ideology” and the term “radicalization”, derivative of them, in modern foreign literature. The study method is a comparative review of the most common approaches reflected in foreign literature. The author considers the history of the emergence and the process of evolution of the studied concepts, their original and modern meaning, reflected in foreign scientific literature. The ambiguity of the boundaries of these concepts has been demonstrated, while highlighting the common approaches of various researchers to determining their essence, which allows us to talk about their “relative nature”. The signs of such a phenomenon as “radicalization” are highlighted, as well as the features of such varieties of “radicalization” identified in the scientific literature as “violent radicalization”, “terrorist radicalization” and “non-violent radicalization”. The relationship of the concept of “radicalization” with such terms as “extremism”, “violent extremism”, “non-violent extremism” is clearly shown. At the same time, attention is also focused on their fundamental differences allocated in the works under study, as well as on the attitude to political violence. The duality and ambiguity of existing approaches, fundamental differences in the views of different researchers regarding the definition of the characteristics of the “radicalization” process are shown. The conclusion was made about the limitation of the approach, which characterizes the concept of “radicalization” exclusively as a process of “transformation into a terrorist”. It was emphasized that “radicalization” is far from always part of the so-called “Conveyor Belt to Terrorism”, and such an approach is too narrow and lopsided. The importance of returning to the traditional understanding of the essence of the concept of “radicalization”, which considered this phenomenon, is outlined primarily as a process of disseminating radical ideas, regardless of their relationship to violence as a means of achieving goals. The levels and trajectories of the “radicalization” process that can be used in the analysis of this phenomenon are identified, which can be considered as a new contribution to the study of this phenomenon.

 Keywords: radicalization, extremism, terrorism, research, criticism, new approaches, foreign literature