It is important to direct resources to effective evidence- and value-based counter-radicalization strategies, especially within prisons. With the increasing threat ofviolence and terror from various violent extremist groups, such as Daesh, thefocus on prisons should be intensified. While radicalization within prisons was nota significant problem a decade ago, the new recruitment strategies from e.g.Daesh now pose a new challenge for prisons. This thesis identifies contemporaryliterature on radicalization, deradicalization, and violent extremism within aprison context. From this seven recurrent themes were identified: overcrowding,religious chaplains, sectioning, risk assessment, monitoring and supervision,rehabilitation programs and education of staff. This was then used to develop anassessment model, which was based on the Canadian Risk-Need-Responsivitymodel’s three core principles, for evaluating and conducting counterradicalizationstrategies. The assessment model was then used as a framework fora comparative analysis of the Danish and Swedish Prison and Probation Services’counter-radicalization strategies within prisons. The results show that bothcountries adhered to a degree to the assessment model and current literaturewithin the field. The results further reveal that there is a lack of empiricalevidence and data on radicalization and counter-radicalization within prisons, andthat the data available is somewhat outdated.

Militant Islamism is a phenomenon that has received significant attention during the lastdecades. Security scholars and policymakers have attempted to cope with the growingconcern of sympathizers willing to carry out terrorist attacks, but until today the need for afurther understanding of circumstances motivating this violence still remains. This causesdifficulties in effective policy responses to tackle militants as well as it strengthens hatredand equivocal perceptions on Islamic practices. This thesis is constituted on the idea that charismatic leadership partakes in the motivationalforces behind militant sympathizers. The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship ofself-concepts provided by charismatic leadership theory towards the contents exposed bymilitant leaders within Islamism. This relationship is examined in an analytical study ofspeeches through the cases of two former representative and inspirational leaders of militantIslamism: Osama Bin Laden and Anwar Al Awlaki. The idea is to contribute with a motivational account that is also sensitive to the context ofthis specific leadership based on past research. Remarks are thus exposed through aframework of concepts by Boas Shamir in charismatic leadership and the assisting tools of aqualitative content analysis. A deeper comprehension of how charismatic leadershipfunctions is significant for the future of policies in Islamist militancy and leadership.Following results indicates to pursue the joint study of Islamist militancy in relation tocharismatic response for more conclusive research.

Existing scholarship suggests terrorism is an ineffective method of political contestation; groups rarely achieve their political objectives and are often disrupted by the security services. These findings invite us to look again at the dominant rational choice paradigm, which suggests that terrorism is selected as the best strategy to achieve predetermined goals. Unpicking the assumptions underpinning this model using historical case studies, comparative analysis and typology development, this thesis broadens our interpretation of what those who use terrorism seek to achieve. It does so via a tripartite framework. First, employing a new reading of American pragmatist thought, interpreting militant group goals as culturally and socially mediated problems opens up a new vista of outcomes, in particular examining the way terrorism seeks to change relations between people. Second, using Social Movement Theory as its organising framework, an empirically derived typology of militant groups sets out the background political conditions and organisational characteristics of 28 dormant groups. Using existing models of interpreting outcomes to assess these historical cases demonstrates the unmet challenges of providing robust explanations for why terrorism ends and what it achieves. Third, the thesis explores the promise of a mechanism and process-led approach to explaining outcomes. It does so through in-depth examination of two historical case studies: Kach and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Despite being classified as failures, using largely neglected primary sources, the case studies reveal a range of fascinating and important outcomes that still resonate in Israel and Yemen today. Most of these methodological and conceptual tools are being applied to the question of terrorism's outcomes for only the first or second time. In doing so, this thesis offers greater depth than existing scholarship on how terrorism ends, by looking beyond measures such as success and failure in interpreting outcomes, whilst affording greater breadth through its ability to make comparative assessments at the level of mechanisms and processes. The result is a more detailed and robust set of explanations as to how terrorism ends and what it achieves, illustrated through detailed historical case studies of two interesting, yet often neglected, groups.