This month, RESOLVE highlights recommended readings from our latest Policy Note, "Whose Vulnerability? Trauma Recovery in the Reintegration of Former Violent Extremists.” Author Michael Niconchuk presents research in global mental health that confirms trauma is not only relevant to the emergence of violent extremism but is also a consequence of participation in violent extremism. Relying on data from child recruits and other conflict-affected populations, this policy note calls for a more prominent role of psychological rehabilitation and trauma recovery in the reintegration of violent extremists. This What We’re Reading digest was recommended by the author to give a deeper background on trauma and chronic stress, global mental health, mental health and violent extremism, and trauma recovery in post-conflict environments.

Trauma and Chronic Stress

McEwen, Bruce S. “Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress.” Chronic stress 1 (2017): 2470547017692328. https:// doi.org/10.1177/2470547017692328.

Van der Kolk, Bessel. The body keeps the score: Mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. UK: Penguin, 2014.

Global Mental Health

Kohrt, Brandon A., Katherine Ottman, Catherine Panter-Brick, Melvin Konner, and Vikram Patel. “Why we heal: The evolution of psychological healing and implications for global mental health.” Clinical Psychology Review 82 (2020): 101920. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101920.

Patel, Vikram, Shekhar Saxena, Crick Lund, Graham Thornicroft, Florence Baingana, Paul Bolton, Dan Chisholm et al. “The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development.” The Lancet 392, no. 10157 (2018): 1553-1598.

Watters, Ethan. Crazy like us: The globalization of the American psyche. Simon and Schuster, 2010.

Mental Health and Violent Extremism

Koehler, Daniel. “Violent extremism, mental health and substance abuse among adolescents: towards a trauma psychological perspective on violent radicalization and deradicalization.” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 31, no. 3 (2020): 455-472. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2020.1758752.

Niconchuk, Michael. “Terrorist Cells: The Neurobiology and Violent Extremism.” In NeuroPeace, no. 1, edited by Colette Rausch, 57-86. Arlington, VA: Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation, 2016.

Weine, Stevan, Zachary Brahmbatt, Emma Cardeli, and Heidi Ellis. “Rapid review to inform the rehabilitation and reintegration of child returnees from the Islamic State.” Annals of global health 86, no. 1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2835.

Trauma Recovery in Post-Conflict Environments

Ellis, B. Heidi, Jeffrey P. Winer, Kate Murray, and Colleen Barrett. “Understanding the mental health of refugees: Trauma, stress, and the cultural context.” In The Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health, edited by Ranna Parekh and Nhi-Ha T. Trinh, 253-273. Humana Press, 2019. https://doi.org/13_6-20174-030-3-978/10.1007.

Maedl, Anna, Elisabeth Schauer, Michael Odenwald, and Thomas Elbert. “Psychological rehabilitation of ex-combatants in nonwestern, post-conflict settings.” In Trauma rehabilitation after war and conflict, edited by Erin Martz, 177-213. New York: Springer, 2010.

Ventevogel, Peter. “Interventions for mental health and psychosocial support in complex humanitarian emergencies: moving towards consensus in policy and action?.” Mental Health of Refugee and Conflict-Affected Populations, edited by Nexhmedin Morina and Angela Nickerson, 155-180. New York: Springer, 2018. https://doi.org/8_2-97046-319-3-978/10.1007.