The violent actions of a few extremists can alter the course of history, yet there persists a yawning gap between the potential impact of these individuals and what we understand about them. In Engineers of Jihad, Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog uncover two unexpected facts, which they imaginatively leverage to narrow that gap: they find that a disproportionate share of Islamist radicals come from an engineering background, and that Islamist and right-wing extremism have more in common than either does with left-wing extremism, in which engineers are absent while social scientists and humanities students are prominent. Using rigorous methods and several new datasets, they explain the link between educational discipline and type of radicalism by looking at two key factors: the social mobility (or lack thereof) for engineers in the Muslim world, and a particular mindset seeking order and hierarchy that is found more frequently among engineers. Engineers' presence in some extremist groups and not others, the authors argue, is a proxy for individual traits that may account for the much larger question of selective recruitment to radical activism.

"Fascinating. . . . The book is rich in data analysis and provides an interesting look into the memberships of Muslim and non-Muslim militant organizations in a way that adds to existing empirical studies on these groups' histories, narrative construction, and ideologies."---Christopher Anzalone, Muslim World Book Review

Autorentext

Diego Gambetta is professor of social theory at the European University Institute, Florence, and official fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. His books include The Sicilian Mafia and Codes of the Underworld (Princeton). Steffen Hertog is associate professor of comparative politics at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats.

Klappentext

"This magnificent treatise combines a deep concern for one of the grave problems of our age--the recruitment of jihadists intent on terrorizing the world--with a Sherlock Holmes approach to a solution. Arthur Conan Doyle might have named the story--had this been fiction--'the case of the engineers who barked too loudly.' As readers discover 'who dunnit' and why, they learn to separate popular myths about Islamic terrorism from what makes jihadists tick."--David D. Laitin, Stanford University

"Engineers of Jihad should take a front-and-center position on the bookshelves of anyone trying to understand jihad in the context of radicalization--Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog have clearly made an invaluable contribution at a pivotal time in history."--Raphael Perl, executive director of the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes

"A groundbreaking study that is also compulsively readable, representing the very best example of social science methods applied to the study of terrorism. . . . An analytically rigorous work that reads like a mystery, even as it teaches us how empirical research on terrorism should be conducted."--Jessica Stern, coauthor of ISIS: The State of Terror

"This book offers a detailed analysis of the curious overrepresentation of engineers in militant Islamist groups and presents a line of inquiry that is new to the field--namely the study of the relationship between political inclinations and personality traits. The book's originality, sharp focus, and analytical rigor set it apart, and it is likely to become a classic on radical political activism."--Thomas Hegghammer, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment

"Why do so many members of violent radical Islamic groups have an engineering background? This book offers new data, interpretations, and explanations of recruitment to violent radical Islamic groups. Engaging and informative, it makes a significant contribution to the study of terrorism."--Scott Gates, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and University of Oslo