Since 9/11, the state of the art in counter-terrorism (CT) research, CT measures and CT impacts has taken off. Nevertheless, countering terrorism as a branch of fear management is still a discipline to be developed. In this ICCT Research Paper, authors Prof. Dr. Edwin Bakker and Prof. Dr. Beatrice de…

This report was commissioned by the Danish government and written by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). It draw on discussions and conclusions from three days of meetings in Copenhagen in June 2013 with a range of relevant stakeholders to discuss means of tackling online extremism. Co-organised by the Danish…

For the past few years, Myanmar’s political transition has been hampered by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. A nation with an ethnically Burman and religiously Buddhist majority, the population also comprises a large minority of Muslims and members of other religious, and includes many different ethnic groups. As such, Myanmar…

This Research Note examines the political developments that have occurred in Bangladesh in 2013 and explores how these have fed into the rise of religious militancy. The ongoing conflicts not only intensify the instability and schisms within the country, but also illustrate that there is a rise in religious militancy…

This toolkit takes the community approach as a starting point. It is primarily meant to support existing or new networks of teachers, social workers, law enforcement, religious leaders, and local and national policy makers on exchanging information on young people or for example on people in a troubled neighbourhood. It…

While Kenya received global attention in September 2013 due to the attack at the Westgate shopping mall, this event represents just one of many violent incidents in the country over recent years, often considered to be in part a spill-over from instability in Somalia. The tensions in Coastal Kenya also…

Far-right extremism remains a worrying problem across Europe. The most visible cases are those that hit the headlines, such as the discovery of the National Socialist Underground in Germany or Anders Behring Breivik’s attacks in Norway. In the past decade, both Hungary and Sweden were hit by a string of…

Santoso, the leader of Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT), or East Indonesian Mujahidin, which operates in Poso, Central Sulawesi, is Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist today. Santoso’s background is a unique one, as he does not fit the typical profile of a prominent Indonesian terrorist. Santoso did not play a significant role…

On November 10, a series of statements were issued by groups vowing allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), including from Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, and the “Arabian Peninsula”, referring to Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, in a November 13 audio recording, IS leader and self-declared Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, stated that he…

This article presents a case study on the radicalization of Omar al-Hammami, aka Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, an American who joined al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group. There are a limited number of in-depth case studies that help to inform the fragmented discussions in the literature about the radicalization process of Islamic…

urkina Faso has a reputation for being relatively peaceful and stable in an insecure region. Violent extremism has significantly impacted other Sahelian and West African states, especially in light of the conflict in Mali and the increase in terrorist violence in northern Nigeria. Burkina Faso’s relative stability has meant that…

The Syria conflict has been described as the most socially mediated in history, with online social media playing a particularly important role. At the same time, the ever-changing landscape of the conflict leads to difficulties in applying analytical approaches taken by other studies of online political activism. Therefore, in this…