Across South Asia, civil society has made important contributions to enhancing rule of law–based efforts to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism. Its role as advocate, monitor, technical expert, trainers, service provider, and information hub complements the efforts of law enforcement and security actors, and many opportunities exist for…
The inside story of the coup that has brought the world’s most feared terrorist network to the brink of collapse
“Who is in control of the narrative?” is the mantra that now echoes in the hallways of the EU’s headquarters in Brussels. Spurred in part by large-scale jihadist propaganda, approximately 20,000 people from 50 countries have joined the fight in Iraq and Syria. So far, authorities in their countries of…
Throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), recent media reports have highlighted an apparent rise in women’s active participation in violent extremist organizations. This includes their deployment in combat operations, and roles as suicide bombers, propagandists, recruiters, and mobilizers. Despite the novelty and sensationalism with which the media has…
Letter dated 16 June 2015 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities addressed to the President of the Security Council
The article employs a subjective personal approach to show that new racisms are alive in the twenty-first century. Tracing my parents’ journey from India and Pakistan to Britain, it explores the political effects of the racism they and their children faced. Locating these reflections in a post-9/11 world, the article…
In response to the increasingly regional threat posed by the terror group Boko Haram, the government of Nigeria has increased its cooperation with neighbors Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. In January, the four countries revisited the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF)—originally formed in 1998 to address security concerns in the Lake…
Terrorism is a male dominated field. Women’s participation in terrorist groups varies from being completely blocked from participation to thirty-percent of membership in some groups.[1] Even when women do manage to break in, they are often limited in the roles they are allowed to carry out and they rarely gain…
This chapter provides readers with an overview and discussion of the manner in which the Internet and social media has facilitated movements, ranging from Aryan Nations and the various European Defence Leagues, to the Global Jihadist Movement and anarchist groups. As the phenomenon of netwar and online recruitment evolved after…
Back in the 1990s something happened in central Bosnia-Herzegovina that inspired people to this day and helps explain why that country now has more men fighting in Syria and Iraq (over 300), as a proportion of its population, than most in Europe. The formation of a “Mujahideen Battalion” in 1992,…
In June 2014 I witnessed thousands of Iraqis throng the offices of top Shia clerics in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali-al Sistani, asking for a religious injunction to proceed towards Mosul and fight the Islamic State. It was not a choreographed exercise. People were genuinely moved to make a difference….
The role of the internet in radicalizing individuals to extremist action is much discussed but remains conceptually and empirically unclear. Here we consider right-wing and jihadist use of the Internet – who posts what and where. We focus on extremist content related to radicalization to violent action, and argue that…
