The Process of Radicalisation in Lone Wolf Terrorists

Sammanfattning: Existing research involving terrorism has largely focused on group-based terrorism. The rise in number of lone wolf terrorist attacks has created the need to explore lone wolf terrorism further. Although research has failed to provide a profile for group-based terrorism, there is a possibility for the identification of specific characteristics for lone wolf terrorists. The purpose of this thesis was to create a deeper understanding of the radicalisation process of an individual that engaged in lone wolf terrorist attack, by creating a case study on Anders Behring Breivik. A chronological time series analysis was performed and identified nine key events that contributed to Breivik’s radicalisation. The radicalisation process and causal factors identified were examined against two radicalisation pyramids developed by McCauley & Moskalenko (2014). Results identified that Breivik was at the highest levels of a lone wolf pre-attack, and that he displayed many common characteristics identified in lone wolf attacks. Further case studies such as this are necessary in order to develop a greater understanding of the underlying processes involved in lone wolf terrorism.