Terrorists Recruiting

I believe that terrorists struggle to recruit in America for many reasons that are both tied to our psychology, culture, and vast diversity. From a psychological and cultural perspective, I think it is hard for most terrorist organizations to appeal to the average American. They don’t understand the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy, and thus don’t really understand what they are asking their recruits to abandon and leave behind. I think that most Americans care about themselves and family over large political, religious, and foreign issues. Even when they do care, it is only for a short period of time generally and is quickly forgotten about as the next new sensationalized issue becomes popular, specifically on social media. It ebbs and flows with what is “trending” on media
From a cultural perspective, I think that most Americans are more nationalistic than most nations. We take pride in our state and country as well as our heritage and culture, something that is not very common in other countries across the world. This makes it very difficult for terrorist recruiters to operate as they have to establish a common dissatisfaction in the majority of these in order to have a person join. A CNN article did highlight some of the ways that ISIS has been successful in the recruitment process in the United States. These included: the use of high levels of media coverage, amplifying its propaganda campaign, their ability to instill fear through the use of power into nonbelievers, the use of already radicalized American recruits (friends and family), and the use of social media. ISIS, specifically, also used the proposition of attaining rank quickly within the organization for American recruits as a recruiting tool. This promised a significant level of power, money, and influence for those who were willing to