SEATTLE — Many terrorist groups are based in susceptible, sometimes defenseless countries in the Middle East and in some areas of Africa. These countries do not exhibit acceptance; rather, fear and vulnerability push these areas into sponsoring terrorism. Extremists feed off of vulnerability, using their power to bully other countries into submission. Of course, all terrorism can not be put into a single category.

A characteristic of one extremist group is not necessarily going to be the same in another group. However, there are universal truths about terrorism, who extremist groups choose to recruit, and why they choose certain locations as their base.

Al-Shabaab focuses on the recruitment of young, naive men. Al-Shabaab directly translates to “the youth,” and their main focus is turning Somalia into an Islamic state. Corruption is a considerable issue, especially when focusing on the police force. Members of Al-Shabaab are often easily granted passage and visas from officials. In 2014, payments to officers made up approximately 50 percent of all bribes in Kenya. Corruption in Kenya is important for Al-Shabaab because they are able to grow stronger with little effort.

Extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Shabaab are interested in young people for recruitment. Countries especially susceptible to recruitment by terrorists include Somalia, Kenya, Syria, Pakistan and Sudan. One characteristic specific to ISIS is that they are not extremely selective when recruiting. They are interested in getting as many people as possible to fight for the Islamic State.

Extremists feed off of vulnerability. Poverty-stricken states, such as Kenya and Somalia, are vulnerable. Therefore, they have become a base for terrorist organizations to recruit and corrupt.

Poverty causes a large amount of vulnerability. In 2014, the Vatican’s Secretary of State declared “We have a huge common interest in dealing with this issue of poverty, which in many cases is the root cause of terrorism.” Research suggests that poverty increases the likelihood of political corruption and coups as well as civil war and a lack of political freedom. All of these factors explain the presence of terrorism. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated, “We can’t just stop with a single terrorist or a single terrorist organization; we have to go and root out the whole system. We have to go after poverty.”

Foreign aid is an investment in national security. When a country has the resources to diminish poverty and corruption, they have the resources to diminish terrorism on their soil. Investment in foreign aid is an investment in education: education that pushes people away from the ignorance that extremists seek in potential recruits. Countries susceptible to terrorism often don’t have a choice because they are vulnerable and economically unable to be independent from an extremist organization.

Investing in foreign aid helps other countries become independent, reducing security threats.

Extremists feed off of vulnerability, as the high poverty rates of East Africa and the Middle East display. The good news is that the correlation between terrorism and poverty is not an unknown concept. For over a decade, people have been researching and deciphering the data and focusing on the root of these terrorist organizations, poverty.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated, “You can never win a war against terror as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate- poverty, disease, and ignorance.” Investing in foreign aid will help diminish poverty, disease, ignorance and, in turn, terrorism.

– Lucy Voegeli

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