Despite the military defeat of Daesh, many of the drivers which initially encouraged individuals to join a violent extremist group have not been addressed. Radicalisation does not occur in a vacuum and it has been increasingly shown that individuals adhere to violent extremist ideology because of contextual frustrations. Violent extremist groups have been incredibly adept at understanding this and adjusting their recruitment techniques accordingly.

This paper seeks to highlight and identify some of the ongoing socio-economic and political drivers of radicalisation across the WANA region, with a particular focus on Tunisia, Lebanon, and Jordan. All three of these countries have been affected by violent extremism despite large contextual differences in demographics, recent histories, and governance structures. However, the commonalities between the countries become clear when the socio-economic and political frustrations facing their populations are considered. These frustrations can function as drivers of radicalisation, and will be the focus of this paper.