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The Best Way to Undermine Violent Extremism Is the Strengthen Those Factors That Motivate Individuals to Reject Political Violence

• Choosing not to engage in violence is attitudinally distinct from opposing political violence in theory.
• Urban centers represent important populations for strengthening nonradicalization.
• Yemenis perceive attacks against local civilians as more legitimate than attacks against foreigners, including aid workers.
• Social ties, measured by the degree of influence exerted by family, friends, and religious leaders, also do not affect individual radicalization in one clear direction.
• Yemenis view political violence as a form of activism, so redirected pathways — or participation in nonviolent activism — do not diminish a propensity for violence.

Why do some individuals engage in political violence in Yemen, while others do not? In this report, the third in a series on this topic, the authors examine the role that social, political, and economic factors play on individual behavior toward violence in the midst of Yemen's bloody and multiyear civil war. This report uses a unique national survey conducted in Yemen in 2016, amidst active fighting, to better understand why Yemenis may reject political violence despite persistent conflict and civil unrest across the country. The report addresses how the U.S. government and its partners can strengthen efforts to undermine violent extremism in Yemen, with implications for future countering violent extremism programs worldwide.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Overview of Conflict and Instability in Yemen

• Chapter Three

  Methodology and Data

• Chapter Four

  Results

• Chapter Five

  Findings and Implications

• Appendix

  Survey and Sampling