Post-Conflict Region
Definition
Post-Conflict Region refers to a geographic area that has experienced sustained armed conflict and retains elevated security threats even after formal hostilities have ended. In the context of Iraq, such regions are characterised by populations of vulnerable youth living in areas previously under ISIS control, where widespread unemployment, low literacy rates, war-related trauma, and the breakdown of traditional institutions combine to heighten susceptibility to extremist recruitment. Continued exposure to violence in these settings may produce desensitisation, meaning that baseline perceptions of manipulative messaging differ markedly from those observed in Western comparison populations. These conditions make post-conflict regions a distinctive testing ground for psychological interventions, as demonstrated by a randomised controlled trial with 191 Iraqi youth that found playing the inoculation game Radicalise significantly improved participants' ability to identify extremist manipulation techniques (p = 0.034, d = 0.31).
Sources: Saleh et al. (2023)
Related Terms
- Field Research (1 shared article)
- Prevention of Violent Extremism (1 shared article)
- Gamification (1 shared article)
- Inoculation Theory (1 shared article)
Applications
Post-Conflict Region and Psychological Inoculation Interventions
Field experiments conducted in post-conflict regions of Iraq demonstrate that gamified inoculation interventions can be adapted and translated for high-risk, real-world environments. The Radicalise game, tested among youth in areas formerly controlled by ISIS, produced a statistically significant improvement in the ability to spot manipulative WhatsApp messaging (p = 0.034, d = 0.31), though it did not significantly improve participants' ability to identify characteristics that make individuals vulnerable to recruitment (p = 0.896, d = 0.02).
Sources: Saleh et al. (2023)
Post-Conflict Region and Extremist Recruitment Vulnerability
Young people in post-conflict areas of Iraq face a convergence of conditions identified as drivers of vulnerability to extremist recruitment, including political exclusion, frustrated aspirations, and desensitisation resulting from prolonged exposure to violence. This desensitisation may alter how manipulative rhetorical strategies are perceived relative to populations without comparable conflict exposure, raising the question of whether standard inoculation benchmarks are directly applicable in such settings.
Sources: Saleh et al. (2023)
