Terrorism and extremism as wicked problem

Abstract

Terrorism and extremism resist the solutions democratic governments routinely promise. This lecture introduces wicked problems theory as an analytical framework for understanding why and what that implies for how states should govern security. Drawing on Rittel and Webber's original formulation and its development in strategic governance literature, it argues that terrorism is not a technical problem amenable to legislative or operational solutions but a complex, adaptive phenomenon whose dimensions are structurally interconnected. Attempts to solve one dimension — legislative, military, communicative — consistently displace or aggravate others. The lecture examines how the contemporary far right exemplifies these dynamics: ideologically heterogeneous, digitally networked, and amplified by algorithmic infrastructures designed to maximise engagement regardless of ideological content. Platform capitalism, it argues, is not an incidental feature of the contemporary extremism landscape but a structural driver of it. The lecture establishes the theoretical foundations for the series, framing subsequent analysis of ghost security and counterterrorism policy within a problem structure that makes both the failures and their persistence intelligible