Radicalization and recruitment of young Kenyan males into homegrown terrorism has persisted since November 2011 following the decision by the government to send Kenya Defense Forces to fight al Shabaab terrorist groups in Somalia. Using Schneider and Ingram's conceptualization of social construction of target populations as a guide, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore the motivation of young Kenyan males in accepting radicalization and recruitment into homegrown terrorism and their interpretations, feelings, and perceptions of the policies and strategies in place to empower them. Using a purposeful sampling with a maximum variation strategy, data were collected through interviews with 34 young Kenyan males, 4 of whom were connected to 4 terrorism incidents in Kenya since 2011. Additional data were collected through publicly available data and policy statements. All data were inductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure and cross-case analysis. Findings indicated that young Kenyan males are enticed with financial offers by al Shabaab, and faced social problems that needed solutions, and participants believe the government of Kenya should better protect them from al Shabaab maneuvers. Implications for social change include recommendations for reform of youth policies and programs by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, and implementation of the recommendations of this study so that youth can be properly engaged in nation-building activities.

The threat from homegrown terrorism in the United States is called a new face of the threat from terrorism. The aim of this study is to empirically examine how the new threat from homegrown terrorism has been constructed in the American discourse. Furthermore it is interesting to examine how the construction relates to the American counterterrorism policy and possible consequences. This is done by using the theoretical framework of Copenhagen’s school of securitization. By using a discourse analysis, documents and speeches from the U.S. government are analysed to see how the threat from homegrown terrorism are constructed by using the securitization theory. This study concludes that the threat from homegrown terrorism is constructed by portraying it as an existential threat to the United States, it’s people and it’s collective identity. The construction has made it possible to undertake exceptional actions that may reduce the American citizens’ freedom in benefit for security.

This thesis deals with the topic of homegrown Islamist terrorism in the European Union. The target of this research is to provide an interpretation of the homegrown terrorism in the political discourse of the EU as an entity and selected member states - France, the United Kingdom and Slovakia. Building on assumptions of social constructivism and securitisation theory, the thesis explores the patterns in the discourses during the years 2015 - 2018 and seeks to identify potential similarities and differences in the political discourses of respective countries. While studying the changes in the discourse, the thesis analyses how the issue of homegrown terrorism has been securitised, thus how the narratives of political authorities shape perception of the homegrown terrorism as a major threat for Europe. In order to organise the arguments in a more objective manner, the research uses a qualitative method of thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that themes which are of general concern in all the discourses are, among others, prevention of terrorism and radicalisation, the significant role of the internet in spreading Islamist propaganda and the problem of returning foreign fighters However, some themes were identified as state-specific, such as highlighting the homegrown nature of current terrorism...

The aim of this work is explanation of the concept of homegrown terrorism based on an analysis of selected terrorist attacks; and creates a definition for this completely new phenomenon. For the processing of the topic I chose a comparative case study method, which is applied to the exploration of three terrorist attacks (terrorist attacks in London 2005, attacks in editorial office of Charlie Hebdo in 2015 and terrorist attacks in Paris 2015). Basic investigated dependent variable is homegrown terrorism and the independent variables are concepts "belonging" and "autonomy". Variables that are connected to the concept of "belonging" include the origin of the attackers and links to the Western countries, the concept of "autonomy" is linked to the independence of the attackers to terrorist groups abroad and self-training of the attackers and finally motives of the attackers include the role of religion, the social situation of the attackers and hatred of invaders towards the West. The variables above are applied to each terrorist attack separately in the form of table data. Each dependent and independent variable may be positive or negative. According to this research, I found that each particular attack was different in certain characteristics from the previous one and therefore it is difficult to...