Papers by Nicole Matejic
National security journal, Mar 4, 2024
Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism | Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023
In any increasingly mixed landscape of non-violent and violent extremism, the types of influences... more In any increasingly mixed landscape of non-violent and violent extremism, the types of influences that lead people towards adopting extreme overvalued beliefs that may lead to terrorism require closer research. This paper contributes to this research by exploring how a susceptibility to influence underpins ideological adoption and offers a new framework for understanding radicalisation: ‘The Radicalisation Spectrum’. By viewing radicalisation as a spectrum of commitment towards or away from extreme overvalued beliefs, the full range of motion those radicalising and disengaging can be more closely studied. Further, by expanding the existing PCVE framework of deter-disengage-prevent-counter to include a ‘dissuade’ pillar at the outset; practitioners can consider building resilience initiatives that anticipate and proactively disrupt and degrade the opportunities available to extremists to influence others towards radicalisation. This paper therefore contends that a person’s risk of radicalisation should be weighed according to their susceptibility to influence rather than their risk of subscribing to any particular ideology or their belonging to any particular risk community.
Commonwealth Cyber Journal, 2024
'Crimes of Influence'-crimes that seek to influence people towards harmful outcomes-will be one o... more 'Crimes of Influence'-crimes that seek to influence people towards harmful outcomes-will be one of the defining features of generative artificial intelligence (AI)-led cybercrime. With an ability to persuade and influence at potentially unavoidable economies of scale, crimes of influence leverage the heuristics and biases that form part of everyday human cognition in ways that mislead, deceive, impair, disrupt, degrade and/or deny user-normative decision-making. Supported by evolving Crime as a Service (CaaS) models engineered to exploit human cognition, generative AI will challenge legislators, regulators and policymakers in ways that they are currently underprepared for. With generative AI able to surpass its initial deployment configuration via adaptive learning, as well as demonstrating unintended consequences, 'who' is then responsible for the crimes it commits when the only human touchpoints occur at the design, deployment and delivery of proceeds-of-crime stages? This paper draws upon emergent scholarship to explore the present-day exploration of generative AI tools by cybercriminals and terrorists, before looking to a hypothetical future and exploring successful initiatives attempting to address this challenge.
National Security Journal, 2024
This paper proposes a new perspective on how radicalisation occurs. It argues that in group-based... more This paper proposes a new perspective on how radicalisation occurs. It argues that in group-based environments, radicalisation occurs on an ideologically-agnostic omni-directional spectrum of engagement vs disengagement where susceptibility to influence – not a commitment to a particular ideology at the outset – is a precursor to violent extremism. By using behavioural economics as a framework to organise information, particularly through the lens of an availability cascade, we can observe how influence underpins not only radicalisation, but the master narratives and grievances ideologies depend on. While the role of an ideology, or many ideologies, remain an important feature of radicalisation, this paper argues that the ability of an extremist availability entrepreneur to exert influence onto others across a ‘Radicalisation Spectrum’ is a constant a feature among those radicalising. This perspective accounts for an increasingly mixed ideological landscape among non-violent and violent extremists and concludes that a person’s susceptibility to influence is therefore a consistent marker for evaluating a person’s risk of radicalisation.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 14, 2020
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sep 1, 2016
Thesis Chapters by Nicole Matejic
Doctoral Thesis, 2023
The study of radicalisation towards violent extremism using behavioural economics as a framework ... more The study of radicalisation towards violent extremism using behavioural economics as a framework to organise and understand influence is an emergent area of scholarship as are the effects of exposure to terrorist and violent extremist content. Existing literature has approached these challenges from multi-disciplinary viewpoints, which have all contributed to a growing body of knowledge. However, by using behavioural economics as a tool to explore these challenges together, this thesis provides a new perspective. By using open-source data and investigative techniques to map the radicalisation and recruitment trajectories of Australian violent Islamists against a choice architecture framework, this thesis explores how the influence exerted on individual and group decision-making can lead to violence. By viewing the radicalisation and recruitment process through an availability cascade lens and acknowledging that the environment is inherently participative in group settings, this thesis offers a new radicalisation model via the mapping of common decision-pathways to violent Islamists. While technology has contributed to facilitating access to terrorist and violent extremist content, the composition of the content itself must also be understood in greater depth. By observing terrorist organisations’ exploitation of communications technology to deliver heuristically-laden content that leverages existing preferences and biases, influence can be exerted on susceptible individuals in ways that normalise, sanction and promote violence. While this thesis is supported by research into Australian Islamic violent extremists, the radicalisation cascade presented is ideologically agnostic and can be applied to any group-based radicalising environment. Only when we understand the decision-making frameworks prospective violent extremists are nudged into and influenced by, can we develop effective deterrence, prevention and disengagement strategies.
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Papers by Nicole Matejic
Thesis Chapters by Nicole Matejic