The potential exploitation of video games, gaming (-adjacent) platforms and gaming-related content by extremist actors has become an increasingly debated issue over the last years. International organisations, policymakers, tech companies, researchers and practitioners alike devote a considerable amount of attention to delineating how and why extremist groups of multiple ideological…

State responses to repatriation of Islamic State (ISIS) foreign fighters and their children detained across Syria and Iraq are highly diverse. Repatriation policies implemented between 2018 and 2020 range from denying repatriation of nationals and revocation of citizenship to repatriation and subsequent gender-responsive rehabilitation programmes. What explains the variation in…

In several conflicts worldwide children are recruited as fighters in irregular forces. These children need to be reintegrated into the society after the conflict. However, concurrent to various reservations in the communities, the reintegration of former child soldiers is challenged by the fact that many of the affected children were…

Large-scale linguistic analyses are increasingly applied to the study of extremism, terrorism, and other threats of violence. At the same time, practitioners working in the field of counterterrorism and security are confronted with large-scale linguistic data, and may benefit from computational methods. This article highlights the challenges and opportunities associated…

This report presents bias indicators for the Australian context and discusses their concept, uses, benefits and risks. The bias indicators presented are the result of extensive consultations with local experts, including academics and practitioners working in law enforcement agencies, government and non-government organisations and community organisations. The researchers’ aim was…

The cataclysmic rise to prominence of the Radical Islamic Network (RIN) in Trinidad and Tobago afforded this small twin island developing state, the unenviable title of Highest Exporter of ISIS foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) per capita in the Western Hemisphere. Such notoriety jolted the nation to re-examine and revise its…

This chapter explores the role of trauma in violent extremism research, offering insights on its effects on the research process, providing insights on the radicalization process of individual cases, and informing reintegration prospects of returning foreign fighters and their family members. The chapter focuses on war-related trauma as a widespread…

This study aims to better understand the plight of families associated with ISIL, including those who remain displaced or imprisoned, to identify opportunities for rehabilitation and sustainable reintegration through gender-responsive recommendations. Mostly women and children, families perceived to be affiliated with ISIL require mental and psychosocial care, livelihoods support, and…

The Shared Endeavour Fund is a civil society funding scheme that supports initiatives designed to build Londoners’ resilience to radicalisation and extremist recruitment, as well as reduce intolerance, hate and extremism in the capital. Launched in 2020, the first round of the Fund awarded £800,000 to 31 civil society and…

He was credited with having compiled the “Lonely Planet guide” to joining ISIS, yet little is known of the remarkable stories told in Zafirr Golamaully’s series of blogs called ‘Dusty Feet’. In this research paper we retell these stories, of an individual’s journey to join, dwell with and fight for…

This research report applies the Attitudes-Behaviors Corrective (ABC) Model of Violent Extremism to map personal journeys in and out of al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda affiliate operating in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa. The ABC Model provides a framework through which to analyze individual trajectories in relation to sympathy for…

The research builds on a context-specific analytical framework to improve the impact of national PVE strategies. 34 drivers of violent extremism are analyzed through two levels of analysis: at a societal level, research findings inform strategies that aim at enhancing the resilience of the State and society, while the individual…