What Prevention and Treatment of Substance Use Disorder Can Tell Us About Addressing Violent Extremism
This RAND Perspective draws a structured parallel between violent extremism and substance addiction, building on observations from the authors' 2021 study of former extremists—many of whom described being pulled back toward radical thoughts and former movements despite knowing the harm, echoing earlier work by Simi and colleagues on "lingering" white supremacist identity that persists long after disengagement. Drawing on their backgrounds in addiction research, the authors review evidence from psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and public health suggesting that extremism shares meaningful features with substance addiction: persistent unwanted thoughts and urges, situationally triggered reactions, and the possibility of relapse. The aim isn't to claim the two are identical or that one causes the other, but to use the parallels to surface new prevention strategies and improve interventions that support disengagement and deradicalization, complementing the growing interest in public health frameworks for understanding violent extremism.