Leslie Young

This article at the LA Times presents one of the more interesting counter-terrorism theories I have seen in a while. It describes how the Indonesian government is embarking on a program of “deradicalization”, which uses former terrorists to wean radicals away from terrorist activity.

This initiative follows the Bali bombings in 2002, which put Indonesia on the map of terrorist activity. The country has been fairly absent from Western media coverage since then, only sometimes coming up in lists of major terrorist acts,  so it’s interesting to see how the Indonesian government is addressing the problem years later.

We here in Canada tend to focus on countries like Afghanistan and Iraq and we lose sight of other approaches to combating terrorism. Maybe Indonesia’s methods could be applied elsewhere.

This may or may not be possible or even desirable. Still, it merits further study.  I don’t know much about the country, its policies or how they are being applied, but I would like to learn more. Read the article. It should get you thinking.