The establishment of the Vilayat-e Khorasan front of Daesh in Afghanistan has worried neighboring countries, because – unlike the Afghan Taliban, whose ambitions were limited to Afghan territory – Daesh seems to have its eyes on conquering territory beyond present day frontiers. Even if unable to conquer land, its physical…

The first edition of this Egmont Paper was released exactly one year ago. Its aim was to explore the wider context that could help explain the decision of thousands of mostly young European volunteers to journey to a faraway war theatre in the Levant. This Egmont Paper is a thoroughly…

Le concept de « radicalisation » célèbre cette année ses douze ans. Apparu pour la première fois dans un document de travail de l’Union européenne en mai 2004, il est devenu le Saint Graal du contreterrorisme. Il fait référence à la trajectoire qu’un individu entreprend en quittant son état dit…

Council of Europe document on guidelines for prison services.

In this paper we draw on our work at the World Bank to provide practical guidance on how the Bank and other donors might operationalize the WDR 2011 so as to promote the emergence of legitimate and effective institutions to manage justice and security in fragile and conflict affected states…

There is strong support for familial abuse as a risk factor for later delinquency and violent offending, whereas empirical evidence about the contribution of experienced organized violence to the cycle of violence is less clear. Nevertheless not all abused children do become violent offenders. This raises the question of which…

Some 5000 men, women and children have travelled from Europe to Syria and Iraq since 2012. An estimated 1500 of these foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) have returned so far. Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands represent a third of European FTF and returnees. This report looks into the evolution of policies…

Framing metaphors for counterterrorism have been analyzed theoretically but their effect has not yet been fully understood empirically. One framing metaphor that has been employed for counterterrorism is a ‘War on Terror’. The present study examined the effect of using the phrase ‘War on Terror’ on support for security policies…

A consensus is building that violent extremism and terrorism are both international security and development issues. It is well documented that economic and social development are better attained in the absence of violent conflict. Furthermore, although poverty does not have a direct causal relationship with violent extremism and terrorism, poorer…

Daesh, which needs no introduction, currently poses one of the greatest threats to global peace. Daesh has capitalized on conditions conducive to the the spread of violent extremism, including the political vacuum created by failed states, the failure of national governments to address socio-economic grievances, and the increasing alienation of…

A systematic analysis of lone-actor terrorists reveals considerable variation in terms of individual characteristics, methodologies, motivations and indicators of violent intent.

This policy paper of the Countering Lone-Actor Terrorism series examines how lone-actor terrorists reveal their intent to commit attacks and recommends a targeted approach based on the characteristics and motivations of the specific threat.`