A bare-bones mathematical model of radicalization

Abstract

Radicalization is the process by which people come to adopt increasingly extreme political or religious ideologies. While radical thinking is by no means problematic in itself, it becomes a threat to national security when it leads to violence. We introduce a simple compartmental model (similar to epidemiology models) to describe the radicalization process. We then extend the model to allow for multiple ideologies. Our approach is similar to the one used in the study of multi-strain diseases. Based on our models, we assess several strategies to counter violent extremism.