Negative experiences during military service are the main drivers of extremist beliefs amongst veterans, a new study from the RAND Corporation concludes. While the Pentagon-funded think tank report cites former President Donald Trump and January 6 as radicalization catalysts, one or more negative experiences in the military was the most consistent attribute for those expressing right- or left-wing extremist views, the study found in a survey of 21 veterans.
Extremist movements supported by RAND’s sample group included QAnon, the Proud Boys, the Five Percent Nation, KKK, Antifa, the Nation of Islam, and the New Black Panthers.
The 21 veterans interviewed for the study revealed a “considerable presence of negative and traumatic life events for interviewees while in the military and afterward while trying to adapt to civilian life,” the study says. The report is careful to note that it applied a small sample size and the need for further research to bolster correlation between time in the military and radicalization, but its general conclusions mirror other studies.
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland conducted a 2022 study that found extremists who plotted or conducted mass casualty extremist attacks were 2.41 times more likely to be classified as mass casualty offenders if they served in the military. “Service members and veterans are not more likely to radicalize to the point of violence than members of the general population,” the study concluded. “However, this research brief illustrates that when service members and veterans do radicalize, they are more likely to plan for, or commit, mass casualty crimes, thus having an outsized impact on public safety.”
A Department of Justice report from 2018 also identified prior military service as a risk factor for violent extremism, alongside other factors including being socially isolated, being single, living alone, and being male.
The RAND study comes as Pentagon leadership and members of Congress on both the left and right have called for greater efforts to root out extremism in the ranks. In the wake of January 6, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tasked the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group to implement steps and provide recommendations addressing the threat posed by extremist activities. The subsequent defense secretary report required the military services to include in-person discussions about extremist activity in periodic training and required counter-extremist activity training engaging senior officers, law enforcement, and legal advisers.
The Pentagon push to root out extremism follows pressure from liberal lawmakers. In 2021, senators including Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., wrote to Austin, “The Department must make every effort to identify service members involved with violent extremist groups to curtail future misconduct and to ensure the maintenance of good order and discipline within the ranks.”
Meanwhile, this month, Republican members of Congress have launched their own effort to root out extremism of the left-wing variety, motivated in part by the self-immolation of Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell in February. In a letter sent to Austin, Reps. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y.; Brian Mast, R-Fla.; Eli Crane, R-Ariz.; Mike Kelly, R-Pa.; Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas; Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.; and Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, wrote to demand a right-wing version of Democrats’ earlier demands.
“Your dedication to rooting out extremist behavior within our ranks has been well documented and demonstrates a commitment to maintaining the honor and cohesion of our armed forces,” the representatives wrote. “It is with this shared commitment in mind that we urge your attention toward the equally pressing issue of left-wing extremism among active duty service members and veterans.”
What members of both parties have ignored is the central finding of the RAND report, which identifies veterans with negative military experiences as the demographic at higher risk for radicalization. This suggests that extremism stems from military service rather than a common belief that extremism is infiltrating into the ranks in any significant way. Indeed, a 2023 report commissioned by the Defense Department and conducted by the Pentagon-funded Institute for Defense Analyses also found “no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is disproportionate to the number of violent extremists in the United States as a whole.” The report also found that “Extremism in the veterans’ community has peaks and valleys over recent decades, and currently appears to be on the increase,” reflecting more the current political environment nationally than the nature of those driven to military service.
Sexual and psychological abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from recovering corpses, and substance abuse developed during active duty were all listed by veterans as negative experiences that coincided with their radicalization, according to RAND.
These negative experiences, as well as others, are also the cause of the military’s recruiting crisis, in that it has been unable for a number of years to meet its own goals in attracting qualified 18- to 24-year-olds to serve.
As the Defense Department struggles under the demands of liberal lawmakers to add more de-radicalization programs to their docket (and as the GOP accuses the military of acquiescing to a left-wing conspiracy to turn the military woke), little is being done to evaluate military service itself and its corrosive effects. Bushnell’s death and the spate of suicides prevalent among young soldiers point to a culture crisis for the military itself, in whom it attracts to serve and then how it treats its own service members once they are in the military. The recent RAND report, in addition to the studies preceding it, suggest that programs focused on addressing the hardships soldiers undergo while serving in the military and in reentering civilian life is a most sensical path forward.