Prevention Of Violent Extremism Research Articles

Review of: “Family and Jihadism: A Socio-Anthropological Approach to the French Experience” edited by Jerôme Ferret and Farhad Khoroskhovar

The edited volume Family and Jihadism. A Socio-Anthropological Approach to the French Experience by Jerôme Ferret and Farhad Khosrokhovar touches an important topic: the impact of the family and family ties in terms of jihadist radicalization. This anthology is a timely and important work based on interdisciplinary contributions related to the jihadist radicalization of young European adults with ties to North Africa. Its insights are useful for both governmental and non-governmental approaches related to the prevention of violent extremism (PVE) within Europe and beyond.

Reluctant Spies: The Role of Neighbourhood Leaders in Indonesia’s PVE Strategy

ABSTRACT Despite a wealth of existing knowledge about intelligence gathering through community policing programs for preventing violent extremism (PVE) in Western countries, relatively little is known about how these initiatives are implemented in Muslim-majority countries: What kinds of community leaders are mobilised? What are they asked to do? How do they respond? This paper answers these questions by examining community policing initiatives for PVE in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. It focuses on the role of a ubiquitous network of neighbourhood leaders at the centre of Indonesia’s efforts to counter threats from pro-ISIS groups. Based on qualitative data collected in two of Indonesia’s largest cities, we find that a set of social, institutional, and political factors constrain neighbourhood leaders’ ability to monitor and report extremist activity to authorities. Several of these factors are similar to the barriers identified in cross-country reporting threshold studies. However, the responsibilisation of neighbourhood leaders for PVE, mixed with their reluctance to report, produces unique adverse effects in Indonesia by incentivising the use of extra-legal measures against suspects. Our findings emphasize the need to repair public trust in law enforcement agencies as a prerequisite for effective community policing and categorise information that communities can effectively provide.

Poor, brainwashed and immature: prevalent gender stereotypes in Indonesian preventing violent extremism (PVE) and counterterrorism (CT) efforts

ABSTRACT The root causes, nature and impact of Indonesian women’s involvement in terrorism has yet to influence Indonesian Counter Terrorism (CT) and Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) policies. Through a feminist discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews with 28 Indonesian government representatives, this article argues that Indonesian CT and PVE policies continue to rely on gender stereotypes rather than addressing the gendered realities of Indonesian women’s relationship with violent extremism. This reflects broader global discourses regarding women and terrorism but are shaped by unique religious, cultural, political and historical influences within the Indonesian context – the Indonesian gender order. This article finds that the stereotypes – depicting female extremists as immature, brainwashed and poor – lead to a generalised applicability of the one-size-fits-all approach of income generation, overlooking female extremists’ culpability, focusing on protection of “women and children”, neglecting the roles diverse actors in CT and PVE efforts, and reinforcing the Indonesian gender order.

Coloniality, modern subjectivities in Kenya and exclusion of African women in preventing violent extremism

Cosmetic attention to contextual nuances has been a major obstacle in many programmes for preventing violent extremism (PVE) in Kenya. The study highlights how donor-funded interventions often disregard cultural values and local experience by posing a subtle resistance to learn from the knowledge of local actors. The non-recognition of contextual knowledge postures a gender problem, increasing chances for systemic exclusion of African women from the knowledge production system. The paper interrogates how modern subjectivities, entrenched in contemporary interventions, exude colonial legacies in PVE. Using decolonial theory and interviews with local practitioners, the study submits that many donor-funded PVE approaches risk pushing further the voice of indigenous African women to the periphery of knowledge production. The paper concludes that PVE interventions in the local context have an opportunity for reinforcing indigenous perspectives through a decisive decolonial strategy in the women peace and security agenda.

Peace Journalism Training for Journalists as a Contribution to PVE in the New Afghanistan

This article presents and discusses results from an exercise in comparative content analysis of news articles about issues of conflict produced by Afghan journalists before and after participating in an internationally sponsored training and mentorship programme in Peace Journalism. The programme was part of a Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) project, intended to create community resources for resilience, in the information sphere, towards conflict issues contributing to recruitment by non-state armed groups such as Islamic State–Khorasan Province (IS–KP). Peace Journalism is familiar as the basis for media development aid in contexts of conflict; however, its use in an intervention aimed specifically at PVE is relatively new. The results showed that the programme was effective, it is argued, in terms of benefits transferred to and applied by participating journalists. A sample of articles after the training showed a markedly higher Peace Journalism quotient than a baseline sample of articles by the same journalists before it. This suggested that the training and mentorship had successfully stimulated and enabled journalistic agency, taking account of constraints imposed by media structures and wider political and social contexts. The latter have become steadily more onerous under the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) government, in power since August 2021, according to international monitoring organisations. Implications are considered, in light of the findings, for future media development aid to Afghanistan.

Bad mothers vs good mothers of the nation: The dual faces of Tunisian women in terrorism and in preventing extremism

ABSTRACT This article seeks to critically examine how gender influences the interpretation and representation of women’s violence within the Tunisian public discourse. Far from being gender-neutral, the counterterrorism discourse perpetuates entrenched patriarchal hierarchies, amplifying imbalanced power dynamics within society. The study, utilizing tools from feminist critical discourse analysis, aims to shed light on how female involvement is depicted in public discussions on terrorism in Tunisia, and how this affects counterterrorism strategies and preventive measures in the post-revolutionary setting. This is achieved primarily by scrutinizing the discourse of jihād al-nikāḥ, and by exploring women’s roles in programmes aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE). Emphasis is given to the depiction of women as mothers – viewed negatively when embracing political violence and positively when engaging in extremism prevention initiatives. While one narrative often paints women merely as victims or brainwashed entities, the PVE policies acknowledge women’s agency but instrumentalize it for security-oriented objectives.

Constructing the ‘good Muslim girl’: hegemonic and pariah femininities in the British Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) agenda

Since the rise of Islamic State (IS) in 2014, British Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) policy, Prevent, has increasingly focused on the appeal of jihadist ideology to Muslim girls. This article considers the case of the Bethnal Green girls, who migrated to IS territory in February 2015. Using the concepts of hegemonic and pariah femininities, it shows how gender intersects with religion, race, and class in British PVE to construct the ’good Muslim girl’ as both an aspirational figure that young Muslim women should seek to emulate and the norm against which signs of radicalisation can be measured. The article concludes that the articulation of this neoliberal subject via PVE is deeply problematic in theory and practice: gendering the ‘signs’ of radicalisation, offering neoliberal solutions that fail to account for intersectional structural oppressions and disciplining pariah Muslim femininities in excessive ways.

Bad Men, Good Men, and Loving Women: Gender Constructions in British State Messaging on Counterterrorism, Countering Violent Extremism and Preventing Violent Extremism

ABSTRACT The United Kingdom presents itself as a leader in counterterrorism (CT), countering violent extremism (CVE) and preventing violent extremism (PVE). The Action Counters Terrorism Campaign is a public-facing campaign of the U.K. government aimed at raising the public’s awareness of how it can support its CT/CVE/PVE efforts. A narrative analysis of the campaign’s YouTube channel (2017–2020) reveals a clear dominant narrative that “ordinary people” can assist in CT/CVE/PVE by being alert and following basic rules (such as Run, Hide, Tell). However, a gendered narrative analysis reveals far more surprising results: The terrorist threat is understood as exclusively male and only men are viewed as at risk of radicalization. Women are predominantly portrayed in relation to men in their lives. Through their love and care, women can support efforts to save men by noticing when “something is wrong.” This article reveals how the gendered constructions of the British awareness campaign are so engrained in a powerful metanarrative of gender and political violence that they ignore even widespread public security debates, such as those surrounding British girls and women joining ISIS. It concludes that a narrative analysis must include a gendered analysis to understand the political and security implications of CT/CVE/PVE narratives.

"Consumed by creed": Obsessive-compulsive symptoms underpin ideological obsession and support for political violence.

Radicalization is a process by which individuals are introduced to an ideological belief system that encourages political, religious, or social change through the use of violence. Here we formulate an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) model of radicalization that links obsessive passion (OP; one of the best predictors of radical intentions) to a larger body of clinical research. The model's central tenet is that individual differences in OCD symptom severity could shape radical intentions via their influence on OP. Across four ideological samples in the United States (Environmental activists, Republicans, Democrats, and Muslims, Ntotal = 1114), we found direct effects between OCD symptom severity and radical intentions, as well as indirect effects of OCD on radical intentions via OP. Even after controlling for potential individual difference and clinical confounds (e.g., adverse childhood experiences, loss of significance, and substance abuse), these relationships remained robust, implying that OCD plays a significant role in the formation of violent ideological intentions and opening new avenues for the treatment and prevention of violent extremism. We discuss the implications of conceptualizing radicalization as an OCD-like disorder with compulsive violent tendencies and ideology-related concerns.

Evaluating and Designing Active Citizenship Education for Youth Resilience to Preventing Violent Extremism at Public Sector General Universities of Sindh, Pakistan

Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Pakistan have experienced unprecedented on-campus violent extremism. Large-scale research led approach is needed to prevent homegrown violent extremism through transformative active citizenship education at HEIs in Pakistan taking into account that youth under the age of 30 constitutes 63% of the total population of Pakistan. As recognized repeatedly by the UN Security Council, violent extremism poses a significant threat to global peace and stability, with tremendous impact on social cohesion, eroding development progress and hindering future gains. This paper assesses the current state of citizenship education at Higher Education Institutes in Sindh province. The problem, however, is that many countries, including Pakistan, do not give citizenship education the importance it deserves, nor use approaches appropriate to the development of informed and participatory citizenship. (Dean, 2000; Kerr, McCarthy, and Smith 2002; Torney-Purta and Amadeo 1999). Citizenship active citizenship in youth is a social leadership program that promotes intercultural dialogue and social responsibility as key leadership competencies in the 21st century and results in community resilience. For this purpose, institutionalizing active citizenship for developing youth resilience to violent extremism warrants a massive radical reform of the education system to develop critical analysis skills among youth enabling them challenge violent extremist narratives. This is a preventive and initiative-taking strategy to develop active citizenship to be capitalized as glue for social inclusivity, integration and national cohesiveness in Pakistan. Active citizenship encompassing volunteering, democratic engagement, environmental sustainability, community development and reflective thinking is most likely to prevent vulnerability to recruitment of violent extremist organizations.

Bringing back the concept of colonial pacification in the study of preventing violent extremism (PVE) practices: the case of Tunisia

This article delves into the historical foundations of countering and preventing violent extremism (CVE-PVE) using contemporary Tunisia as a case study. While PVE emerged in the 2010s, representing a shift from stringent counterterrorism to a more holistic preventative strategy, it recalls colonial notions and practices. This work seeks to contextualize PVE, emphasizing continuities and changes across colonial, post-colonial, and neocolonial control and prevention practices. Using a genealogical and discursive methodology, the research examines contemporary policy documents, political discourse, colonial archives and transitional justice records. Central to this exploration is the French colonial notion of pacification, which refers to the action to restore order and prevent disorder in regions resisting colonial dominance. The study sheds light on the colonial origins of present-day preventative measures such as administrative control, referral, persuasion and peacebuilding. The article posits that the concept of pacification is pivotal to understanding modern PVE practices.

Introduction: Rethinking Gender in Responses to Violent Extremism

Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the role of women in the prevention of violent extremism and within extremist networks. Yet research and scholarship in this area remains limited and a deeper engagement with gender and the role of norms around masculinities and femininities in violent extremism is needed. This special issue includes a selection of both timely and relevant articles by academics and practitioners, mostly from the Global South, focusing on gender and violent extremism particularly in the context of East Africa. The articles were presented at the Global Network on Gender and Responding to Violent Extremism (GARVE) online conference in November 2021. GARVE is an international network involving academics, policymakers and practitioners to promote innovative and critical thinking on violent extremism from a gender perspective and facilitate shared learning.

Derecho humano a la seguridad: Prevención del Extremismo Violento con Vasili Grossman

This study addresses the human right to security from the perspective of the Preventing Violent Extremism. The Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) is a strategy within the United Nations framework focused on strengthening respect for human rights. The PVE addresses violent extremism that leads to terrorism from the perspective of prevention and human rights. The most relevant aspect of this perspective is its innovation to guarantee security as a human right. Moreover, the PVE arises as a response to anti-terrorist security policies that are considered insufficient to eradicate this phenomenon. The PVE action measures, therefore, go beyond what is strictly known as security policy. Education and culture, in this sense, have an important role in the PVE, as highlighted by UNESCO. The analysis that is developed exposes a proposal for a dialogical space that applies the measure of education, culture, and awareness through literature. Thus, based on the dialogue with Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, we reflect on violent extremism and human rights.

The two faces of Janus: educational pathways into and out of violent extremism in Norway

ABSTRACT The prevention of violent extremism in education has given rise to considerable policy debates in Norway. A key feature of this, illustrated in the growing stream of curricular and security policy reforms, is that these debates risk being disconnected from graspable elements in the social lives of young people. Using qualitative document analysis (QDA), this study analysis educational efforts to prevent violent extremism in Norway. The analysis suggests that interventions are structured according to reductionist thinking of cause and effect in which the individual is at the receiving end of security efforts. In particular, the dominant mode of preventing extremism is through therapeutic strategies aimed at helping vulnerable individuals becoming resilient to extreme ideologies and to help them respond to structural grievances. There is less attention on the role of social mechanisms including the reciprocal interplay between structural, social and individual factors in the analysed projects. Based on these findings, the study suggests the importance of exploring social processes in which extremism is engaged and resisted. Furthermore, it is argued that social movement theory (SMT) offers a promising way to understand the role of social processes in pathways into and out of extremism.

Role of Youth in Peacebuilding and Prevention of Violent Extremism in India: A Social Inclusion Perspective

Role of Youth in Peacebuilding and Prevention of Violent Extremism in India: A Social Inclusion Perspective

Evaluating the Normative and Institutional Frameworks for Management of Violent Extremism Offenders in the Kenyan Prisons

This study aimed at evaluating the normative and institutional frameworks for management of violent extremism offenders in the Kenyan prisons. This study was guided by the Restorative justice theory, Retributive justice theory and the transformative justice theory. The study applied descriptive research design. This study used purposive and simple random sampling techniques to select 200 respondents who included; prison staff (senior staff), religious leaders (Sheikhs), and criminal justice lawyers, Office of the ODPP, prosecutors and inmates. Primary data was collected using questionnaires and key informants interview schedules. Secondary data was collected from published articles, journals, books, dissertations and projects. Quantitative data was coded and entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 22 for analysis while qualitative data was arranged thematically and presented through narration. The study findings established that; there exist weaknesses in law regarding management of violent extremist in Kenya particularly leniency relating to the justice served. On the strategies utilized for the management of violent extremist, incarceration is perceived as a fairly effective strategy while military incursion is regarded as a very effective strategy. Radicalization can be positive if it does not encourage violence or harm. Prison authorities have adopted various approaches to manage violent extremism which include; faith-based interventions which entail religious transformation offered by professional Clerics; separation of convicted inmates in different prison blocks and cells; education and vocational training to illiterate and marginalized offenders to acquire skills which can avail them employment opportunities, psychological and cognitive approaches as well as use of recreational and cultural activities. These strategies are geared towards dissuading violent extremism offenders from extremism as well as deradicalize them. The study findings identified the challenges which confront the successful implementation of deradicalization and prevention of violent extremism in Kenyan Prisons as well as opportunities. They include; institutional challenges, recidivism or relapse among the Prisoners; reintegration challenges; structural challenges evidenced by unemployment among the released terrorist convicts; regulatory discontinuities, Gang related problems among others. In this regard the study recommends for a coordinated multiagency cooperation in the management of violent extremists suspects or prisoners. There is also need for drafting and legislation of a policy framework for the management of violent extremism in rehabilitation facilities in the country.

Countering Extremist Violence and Terrorism in Cabo Delgado: (How) Can Past Peace-Building and DDR Lessons Be of Use?

Radical Islamic insurgency and violent extremism have claimed over 5,250 lives and forcibly displaced at least 734,000 people in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique over the past six and a half years. Counter-insurgency efforts of the government to date have mainly focused on a military- and security-based response, paying less attention to the structural drivers of extremist violence, such as socio-economic inequalities, poor gov-ernance, historic ideological, ethnic and religious oppositions, and an incomplete peace-building and reconciliation process from the post-civil war period. The paper examines how Mozambique can learn from its past peace-building and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) experience, build on the achievements while also correct the shortcomings, which have equally contributed to the rise of violence. It also analyses ways to implement a tailored, inclusive, and effective strategy of Countering and Pre-venting Violent Extremism (C/PVE), building on the past but linking it to present needs and future challenges. Addressing long-standing root causes, focusing on youth and their communities, and furthering reconciliation are just a few areas, among others, to focus on to ensure that a heavy military response does not undermine the prospects of long-term peace.

How Extremist Movements Delegitimise Religious Moderation Campaigns: A Case of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (2018-2022)

This article examines how extremist movements respond to the mainstreaming of religiously moderate teachings as strategies for preventing violent extremism (PVE). Focusing on the case of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (2018-2022), this article argues that extremist movements react to religious moderation campaigns by operating a malign influence operation intended to delegitimise the projects. To do so, the movements try to undermine the trust of the Muslim audience in democratic values that underpin the idea of religious moderation, as well as authorities and community members who appear supportive of the campaigns. While the substance of the campaigns is labelled as incompatible with the ‘true’ Islamic teachings, the extremists also portray supportive authorities and community members as having malicious interests against Islam. Once distrust of the campaigns and their messengers is sown, the extremists then urge the Muslim audience to return to the ‘true’ Islam, resisting authorities, and contest the influence of community members supportive of the religious moderation campaigns. This study, therefore, sheds light on how extremist movements perceive and counter the promotion of religious moderation as an instrument of PVE.

Are religious actors relevant in the prevention of violent extremism?

It is common in public discourse in Europe to draw a direct line between a strict observance of Islam and the jihadi Salafi ideology. Thus, the correlations that may exist between “quietist” Salafism and jihadism are used to justify the surveillance of communities labelled as Salafi. However, the main findings of the research we present in this Nota Internacional on the Muslim communities in the Catalan municipalities of Reus (in the province of Tarragona) and Salt (Girona province) question the use of the Salafi label among scholars and the police. They also reveal the part religious and social actors play in the Muslim community. From this standpoint, we can see how religious actors could perform a major role in prevention of violent extremism (PVE) strategies, not just as potential informants as has been the case in the past, but also as real agents for the implementation of these strategies.

Staying safe by being good? The EU's normative decline as a security actor in the Middle East

AbstractThe European Union's cooperation with Middle Eastern regimes to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism has received increased scholarly attention following several terrorist attacks in Europe the last decade. Despite the EU's emphasis on good governance, democracy, and human rights to prevent violent extremism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), I argue that the Union is in fact declining as a ‘normative power’ as it has prioritised a ‘security first’ centred approach. This article demonstrates how the EU's normative projects have, first, appropriated a logic of securitisation; and second, how the Union downplays democracy and good governance in fear of alienating authoritarian key partners in the region. There are consequently inherent limitations to, and contradictions in, the EU's Counter-Terrorism (CT) and Preventing Violent Extremism (PvE) efforts. These conclusions are based on interviews with EU representatives and implementing partners on the ground. The interviews are complemented by an analysis of the scope and focus of the EU's CT and PvE projects. The findings have implications for our understanding of normative powers’ priorities when facing a perceived dilemma of choosing between its security, on the one hand, and its identity and value aspirations, on the other.