Towards a comprehensive approach to combating violent extremist ideology in the digital space: The Counter-Ideological Response (cir) model

Based on the assumption that ideology is the centre of gravity of a violent Islamist terrorist network, this chapter proposes a Counter-Ideological Response (CIR) Model for countering violent extremism (CVE) in Southeast Asia. The Model seeks to gradually diminish the appeal of violent extremist ideology. It comprises of five conceptual Spaces of Sender, Message, Mechanism, Recipient and Context, within which ideology-relevant policy interventions may be attempted, so as to impact the overall reach and appeal of the violent extremist narrative vis-a-vis any countervailing narrative put out against it. The model is applied to the Indonesian CVE milieu in this chapter.