Extremist Right Wing Militias

Extremist Right Wing Militias. Psychological Factors of Terrorism. Models and Framework for the Radicalization Process

1) Describe the differences between homegrown extremism and terrorism, and provide your own
definition of each.
2) Compare and contrast at least two different radicalization models. Highlight any key
similarities and differences.
3) Choose either a purely domestic extremist group or an internationally focused terrorist
organization and briefly describe the main inspiration (the grievance or cause).
For the third part you can pick any extremist or terrorist group you like to describe the ideology or
what drives them, but for three easy choices you could opt to look at al Qaeda, Islamic State, or the extremist right wing Militias (see below).
Ibrahim, R. (2005, October 5). Al Qaeda’s Offensive Rhetoric: What does Al Qaeda ultimately
want? Middle East Forum. Retrieved from [http://www.meforum.org/2540/al-qaeda-offensiverhetoric]
Wood, G. (2015, March). What ISIS Really Wants. The Atlantic. Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Baysinger, T. G. (July 2006). Right-wing Group Characteristics and Ideology. Homeland Security
Affairs 2, Article 3. Retrieved from https://www.hsaj.org/articles/166
Note: 4 FULL pages is the minimum acceptable page length / actual research paper content.
Make sure you read the instructions carefully and that you focus your paper on answering the
assigned questions and use the attached ‘toolkit’ for your research and writing. This assignment
is a research paper, not an opinion paper, so you need to use scholarly sources to support your
thesis. Use formal academic writing and do not use the first person such as ‘I’ or ‘my’; see the
OWL site on academic writing style. Make sure you use APA style in-text parenthetical citations
at the end of every sentence where you are quoting another’s ideas (or any information) that is
not your own thoughts and words, like this (Bergen, 2015, para 14). Citations are required for paraphrases as well, but not the page or paragraph number in that case. I highly recommend you
use the APUS writing guide which can be found in the university library or at this link: APUS
Research Writing and Style Guide. You are welcome to use supplementary sources to
compliment the assigned readings based upon your research, but make sure you use only
scholarly and credible sources (do not use open websites and you never want to use wikipedia
for a college level paper). Also, dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as general news sites
(like CNN) are not appropriate for college level research papers. A good example of what NOT to
use is NSA.Gov1.info (which some students have tried to use in research papers), not only is it
not the NSA webpage, the site loaded with bogus information and if you scroll down to the
bottom it says “This is a parody of nsa.gov and has not been approved, endorsed, or authorized
by the National Security Agency or by any other U.S. Government agency.” Also, do not cite the
weekly lessons as those are only basic information to start off the topic with. You need to use
mainly scholarly and reputable academic books and journal articles. Refer to Dr Gardner’s
Toolbox of Top Research and Writing Tips for HLSS Courses.pdf including the section titled “How
to find scholarly research sources for HLSS Courses.” Also, see the APUS Library Homeland
Security Program Guide for good sources, as well as the APUS Research Primer and the APUS
Library Research FAQs. For formatting, the best option is to use this example paper as a
template (for formatting purposes only) Dr Gardner Example APA Research Paper2020.docx
found at this link https://edge.apus.edu/x/p1qeJi.
Requirements: (See the section of the attached toolkit titled “How to Write an Effective College
Level Research Paper for HLSS Courses”) – Written according to the APA style and format (parenthetical in-text citation formats only; not
end notes or footnotes);
– Formatted in APA 6th edition style, 1″ margins on all sides, left justified, size 12 pitch type in
black color Times New Roman font, and all double spaced (no extra lines or spaces after a
paragraph or section headings and no added font sizes or lines either).
– A respectable number of credible resources used, cited in the paper as in-text citations, and
included on the reference page. A good rule of thumb is at least 2 scholarly sources per page of
content (a minimum of 2 new scholarly sources per page in a research paper is acceptable). Use
those academic and credible sources provided to you throughout the course, as well as other
scholarly material obtained from conducting your own research. Freely utilize appropriate and
reputable academic sources, summarize in your own words and cite accordingly. You are free to
use material from your own forum posts from this course in your paper, and you do not have to
cite yourself if you do so.
– The paper must be free of typographical, spelling and grammatical errors (make sure to proof
read before submission)
– Turn your paper in as a Word Document and title your assignment
“LastnameHLSSXXXMidterm” or ‘Progress’ or ‘Final’ on the end as appropriate.

– The appropriate SSGS Assignment Rubric for 100-200 Level Classes Assignment Rubric or
300-400 Level Classes Assignment Rubric (as appropriate for this course) will be used to
evaluate this assignment.
Finally, be mindful of excessive direct quotes as the paper should not contain just a string of
quotations from sources. Make sure you comply with all academic integrity standards expected
by APUS and as slide 14 of the APUS Academic Integrity presentation posted in course syllabus
(and the week 1 introduction forum) states “Quotes cannot make up more than 10% of the text of
your assignment.” So paraphrase where you can and provide your own analysis and synthesis of
your research (direct quotes only when necessary to support your thesis). The bottom line for
academic integrity is to write an original work for this assignment (not copied from anywhere on
the internet or a recycled content of your own previous papers) to to properly cite your
references. See the syllabus tab within this course for more important information on academic
integrity and the repercussions of plagiarism. Turnitin plagiarism checking software will be used
on all papers (automatically).
Link to Assignment Rubric
This Midterm addresses the following course objectives:

1. Describe the psychological factors of terrorism as well as the ideologies that drive homegrown
violent extremism.
2. Compare and contrast the different models and framework for the radicalization process