Heuristics of Security Policy Decision-Making Processes

In her new working paper “Heuristik sicherheits­politischer Entscheidungs­prozesse”, Lea Deborah Scheu takes a multi-pers­pective approach to examining the rationale behind measures taken against Isla­mism in Germany. The study was conducted as part of the consortium project “Confi­gurations of Social and Political Practices in Dealing with Radical Islam (KURI)”.

Over the past two decades, numerous measures have been intro­duced to combat and prevent Islamism, accom­panied by the establish­ment of various exchange formats at the federal and state levels. This working paper exa­mines the basis on which security policy measures are developed and justified.

The ana­lysis is based on 45 qualitative inter­views with experts from security agencies, govern­ment, civil society, and politics, con­ducted between 2023 and 2024. Respondents commen­ted on their threat assess­ment, perceived public pressure to act, and the specific need for measures, among other things.

The results show that Islam­ism continues to be assessed as a con­sistently high threat. Measures are under­stood both as a response to Isla­mist attacks and as an adap­tation to the changing behavior of Isla­mist actors. At the same time, it is clear that different groups of actors prefer different approaches to solving the problem.

Lea Deborah Scheu is a Researcher at PRIF's Research Depart­ment Trans­national Politics and member of the Research Group Radi­calization, Terrorism, and Extremism Prevention. Currently, she conducts research on the dealing of state and non-state actors with Islamism and is especially interested in the under­standing of diversity in the police.

The working paper is available for down­load (PDF).