Joshua A. Geltzer – författare

Charlottesville. Pittsburgh. New Zealand. The threat of real-world violence from hateful extremism is growing. In the wake of these and other attacks, there is an increasing public outcry for governments, tech companies, and others to address the deadly effects of hate-inspired violence. As extremists and hate groups become savvier at mobilizing through social media, there will be ever more intense calls for stronger, swifter responses. Yet these responses must be based on research and data, rather than fear and intuition. In order to formulate the right responses, there are still many unanswered questions that must be addressed.

What are the actual constellations and contours of hate groups in the United States? What types of hateful content are being promulgated by these groups, and how? Beyond specific groups, how should we think about broader networks of hate? What are the dynamics of connection between online activities and real-world violence? When and where are hateful activities most pernicious and threatening? What impact do major incidents of hate have on individuals and communities? And what can been done to provide more support to impacted individuals and communities?

In an attempt to answer these vexing questions, Joshua Geltzer, Dipayan Ghosh, and Robert McKenzie have curated a diverse set of essays from scholars, public intellectuals, community leaders, policymakers, religious clerics, tech industry officials, and victims themselves. Taken together, these essays not only explore the different manifestations and consequences of hate today but also offer concrete and actionable solutions. Exploring Hate: An Anthology is uniquely positioned to shape and drive a vital public conversation on the issue of hate. As the global public grapples with emergent and evolving forms of hate, this volume will provide a guide for understanding that hate—and the options for addressing it.

This book examines the communicative aspects and implications of US counter-terrorist policies towards al-Qaeda.

Recent US counter-terrorist strategy has been largely based upon projecting certain perceptions of America as an actor to those drawn to al-Qaeda, and this book investigates in what ways, and to what extent, US officials believed that the signals sent by what America did and said could influence the behaviour of the terrorist and would-be terrorist. The study then draws on a growing understanding of that audience to analyse how those drawn to al-Qaeda were and, indeed, still are likely to be influenced by the perceptions of America that Washington''s policies generated. The study''s central argument is that, given al-Qaeda''s unconventional strategy and the particularities of the world-view characterising those drawn to the group, America''s counter-terrorist signalling proved largely counter-productive to America''s objective of undermining al-Qaeda''s strategic narrative, instead serving in many ways to validate it.

Firstly, this book seeks to reveal the significant and largely unexplored role that signalling has played in US counter-terrorist policy towards al-Qaeda. Second, it tries to capture the objectives, strategy, tactics, ideology, and other defining features of the world-view characterising those drawn to al-Qaeda. Third, it strives to combine those two lines of inquiry by applying the al-Qaeda world-view to a critical analysis of the signals sent by US policies. Finally, the book aims to offer broad policy implications that demonstrate how an informed understanding of the world-view of those drawn to al-Qaeda can be employed to revise and refine American counter-terrorist signalling.

This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy and public diplomacy, counter-terrorism, strategy and international security.

Joshua Alexander Geltzer has a PhD in War Studies from Kings College London, and is currently a juris doctoral student at Yale Law School.