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This volume reports on the range of papers presented at the Annual Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Research Conference 2014 from 7-8 December 2014 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Conference was organized and hosted by Hedayah... more
This volume reports on the range of papers presented at the Annual Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Research Conference 2014 from 7-8 December 2014 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Conference was organized and hosted by Hedayah (the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism), Curtin University, People Against Violent Extremism (PaVE), and the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The Conference was also sponsored in part by the European Commission and the United States Department of State. The event was attended by approximately 100 academics, practitioners and policymakers from over 25 countries. The 2014 CVE Research Conference follows from the inaugural CVE Symposium hosted by Curtin University, PaVE, Macquarie University and Hedayah in Perth, Australia in 2013. As the first of its kind in the region, the 2013 Symposium brought together national and international scholars, practitioners, policymakers and former e...
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Blocks of flats under construction, pressure on the infrastructure and crowded public spaces is today to be found all over Damascus. However, specific areas have undergone more intense developments during the last years, mainly linked to... more
Blocks of flats under construction, pressure on the infrastructure and crowded public spaces is today to be found all over Damascus. However, specific areas have undergone more intense developments during the last years, mainly linked to internal and international migration movements. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein regime, the conflict in Iraq is still ongoing and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been constrained to leave their country to move in great number towards Syria. The vast majority comes from the main cities in Iraq, and especially from Baghdad, and they settled in the suburbs of the Syrian capital. Neither Syria, nor the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have opened camps to accommodate the refugees, who are today one of the most important group of urban refugees throughout the world. This presentation strives to analyse the role of migrants in the recent urban development of Damascus underprivileged suburbs, with a focus on the modes of settlement of Ir...
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Following an examination of the current gaps in the literature on the role of gender and violent extremism (VE) in Kenya, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) under the Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism (STRIVE) II... more
Following an examination of the current gaps in the literature on the role of gender and violent extremism (VE) in Kenya, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) under the Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism (STRIVE) II programme, in partnership with the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), supported the development of four academic studies exploring regional dynamics of women’s involvement in violent extremist activity. This article, which serves as an introductory note to this Special Issue, situates the four studies in the existing literature and explores their contribution to the understanding of the role and impact of women in violent extremism. In particular, the review argues that the four pieces of research contribute to an area of study that has been missing in much of the published work on women’s recruitment into VE groups in East Africa. Specifically, the review is premised on the need for examining women’s recruitment in VE through a gendered len...
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Blocks of flats under construction, pressure on the infrastructure, and crowded public spaces could be found all over Damascus in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, during the last years of the decade specific areas... more
Blocks of flats under construction, pressure on the infrastructure, and crowded public spaces could be found all over Damascus in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, during the last years of the decade specific areas underwent particularly intense developments. These were mainly linked to internal and international migration movements. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, the conflict in Iraq was ongoing, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were forced to leave their country and moved in great numbers to Syria. The vast majority of the Iraqis came from the main cities in Iraq, and especially from Baghdad, and they settled in the suburbs of the Syrian capital. This chapter, based on an in-depth examination of change in areas with a high concentration of Iraqi refugees as well as the personal itineraries of Iraqi refugees, sets out to explore how everyday life in Damascus was changing in the 2000–2010 period. By looking into the public spaces and i...
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This case study provides exploratory research into the personal journeys of forced recruits into Boko Haram, to examine how they entered the organization, the conditions they experienced in camps and settlements, their exits from the... more
This case study provides exploratory research into the personal journeys of forced recruits into Boko Haram, to examine how they entered the organization, the conditions they experienced in camps and settlements, their exits from the group, their subsequent experiences in state hands, and their perspectives about future reintegration. These themes are particularly pertinent given the mass disengagements from Boko Haram in spring 2022, and the extent to which federal and state systems lack the capacity to absorb and handle the large numbers involved. Research was undertaken at Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC), a program established in 2016 by the Nigerian state to provide an off-ramp for members of Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) deemed to be ‘low risk’ by military intelligence. Located at Mallam Sidi on the outskirts of Gombe, the OPSC program houses cohorts of around six hundred clients at any point in time. This report features the findings from thirteen in...
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The link between crime and violent extremism (VE) has been the subject of increasing scholarly and political concern. While there is evidence to suggest a link between crime and VE, such evidence is particularly limited in developing... more
The link between crime and violent extremism (VE) has been the subject of increasing scholarly and political concern. While there is evidence to suggest a link between crime and VE, such evidence is particularly limited in developing countries. In an attempt to address this gap in understanding, Gayatri Sahgal and Martine Zeuthen conducted a study in a prison environment to investigate the relationship between criminality and VE in Kenya. The study finds a tenuous link between other types of crime and VE at the individual and organisational levels, with some indication of specific institutional patterns of recruitment and radicalisation within prisons.◼
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The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to policy-makers and implementers of countering violent extremism (CVE) and risk reduction (RR, also referred to by others as deradicalisation) programmes. While the examples provided are... more
The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to policy-makers and implementers of countering violent extremism (CVE) and risk reduction (RR, also referred to by others as deradicalisation) programmes. While the examples provided are mostly from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, reflecting the authors’ professional experiences of programming in these regions, many of the tools and techniques presented will also be relevant to those operating in ‘the West’. CVE and RR provide two increasingly prominent frameworks for countering the influence of individuals and entities involved in violent extremism (VE). Widely understood to describe a range of preventative and non-coercive measures, CVE may involve, for instance, community debates on sensitive topics, media messaging, interfaith dialogues, training of state governance and security actors, and a variety of initiatives with individuals deemed to be ‘at risk’ of being drawn to violence, such as vocational training and mentorship programmes. While there are substantial overlaps between CVE and RR in terms of activities, and many authorities group them under the same umbrella, RR can be considered distinct because its activities more narrowly target individuals who were previously directly or indirectly involved in the production of violence, such as defectors from VE entities, or those serving sentences for terrorism-related charges. This paper aims to assist policy-makers and implementers by examining approaches through
which to understand the drivers of VE and the wider context in which this violence occurs.
which to understand the drivers of VE and the wider context in which this violence occurs.
Research Interests: Terrorism, Political Violence and Terrorism, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency(COIN), Political Violence, and 10 moreInsurgency, Jihad, Salafism, Preventing violent extremism, Salafi-Jihadi Ideology, Extreme and Far Right, Countering Violent Extremism, Deradicalization, Violent Extremism, and Deradicalisation
This article responds to Clark McCauley’s commentary on our Attitudes Behaviors Corrective (ABC) Model of Violent Extremism, in which he contrasts our framework with his own two pyramids model (developed with Sophia Moskalenko). In... more
This article responds to Clark McCauley’s commentary on our Attitudes Behaviors Corrective (ABC) Model of Violent Extremism, in which he contrasts our framework with his own two pyramids model (developed with Sophia Moskalenko). In particular, we focus on further distinguishing between the “core” and “optional extra” elements of our ABC model, elaborating on how our interpretation deals with individuals who seemingly become involved in violence in the interests of the group, “unpacking” the concept of ideology through our ABC lens, and providing recommendations on how to measure attitudes and behaviors in a context specific manner.
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Progress in understanding and responding to terrorism and violent extremism has continued to stall in part because we often fail to adequately conceptualize the problem. Perhaps most notably, much of our terminology (for instance,... more
Progress in understanding and responding to terrorism and violent extremism has continued to stall in part because we often fail to adequately conceptualize the problem. Perhaps most notably, much of our terminology (for instance, “radicalization”) and many variants of our existing models and analogies (including conveyor belts, staircases and pyramids) conflate sympathy for this violence with involvement in its creation. As its name suggests, the Attitudes-Behaviors Corrective (ABC) model seeks to overcome this issue by placing this key disconnect between attitudes and behaviors at its core. In this paper, we first present the key elements of our model, which include a graphic repre- sentation of this disconnect and a classification system of the drivers of violent extremism. The former enables us to track the trajectories of individuals in relation to both their attitudes and behaviors, while the latter helps ensure that we consider all potential explanations for these movements. We then adapt these elements to focus on exit from violence, applying the dual concepts of disengagement and deradicali- zation. Finally, we conclude with a section that aims to provide the research community and those tasked with preventing and countering violent extremism with practical benefits from the ABC model.