September 2019 | CVE Frontiers

What We're Reading

September 2019 | CVE Frontiers

This month, the RESOLVE Team brings to you a selection of articles from the frontiers of countering violent extremism research, practice, and policy. These topics emerged at the 2019 RESOLVE Forum Network Meeting as research priorities for the future of countering violent extremism the next 5-10 years. Although some research exists on the nexus of climate change and conflict, crime and terrorism, and technology and counterterrorism, knowledge gaps remain on ecoterrorism, low-tech terrorism, child conflict trauma effects, gender dynamics, cybersecurity and closed online spaces, proxy warfare, and artificial intelligence—in relation to violent extremism. As the threat evolves in the digital age, it is time to proactively push the boundaries of CVE research and explore the frontiers of the known unknowns.

Article

Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler and Cas Mudde

2014-06-09

“Ecoterrorism”: Terrorist Threat or Political Ploy?

This article examines the phenomenon of "ecoterrorism" from a conceptual and empirical perspective. We explore the political and academic debates over the meaning and use of the term ecot...

Article

Elizabeth L. Chalecki

2006-03-13

A New Vigilance: Identifying and Reducing the Risks of Environmental Terrorism

Terrorism is a constant and fearful phenomenon, as America has learned to its recent and terrible cost, and like the nine-headed hydra of ancient mythology, as soon as one group or method...

Publication

J. Jordan Burns

2017-05-01

Preventing the World’s Next Refugee Crisis: Famine, Conflict, and Climate Change in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen

In an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, four countries: Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen are all on the verge of famine at the same time. A catastrophe of this magnitude would pe...

Publication

Louise van Schaik and Tammo Bakker

2017-11-01

Climate-migration-security: Making the most of a contested relationship

This policy brief discusses the relationship between climate change, migration, and security. This relationship is academically contested. Research is inconclusive on key issues, such as ...

Article

Paul J. Smith

2007-08-01

Climate Change, Weak States and the "War on Terrorism" in South and Southeast Asia

Climate change is emerging as one of the key security challenges of the 21st century, a challenge that will increasingly have effects in the realm of counter-terrorism. Since January 2002...

Article

Gary LaFree and Laura Dugan

2004-01-01

How Does Studying Terrorism Compare to Studying Crime?

Although the research literature on terrorism has expanded dramatically since the 1970s, with few exceptions little of this work has been done by criminologists or has appeared in crimino...

Article

Scott H. Decker and David C. Pyrooz

2015-02-01

“I’m down for a Jihad”: How 100 Years of Gang Research Can Inform the Study of Terrorism, Radicalization and Extremism

One of the difficult tasks in the social sciences is integrative, interdisciplinary work. There are many commonalities across the social sciences in method, theory, and policy. The study ...

Article

Alpaslan Özerdem and Sukanya Podder

2011-12-01

Disarming Youth Combatants: Mitigating Youth Radicalization and Violent Extremism

In the complex of motivating variables that define the push and pull factors behind recruitment and participation in civil conflict, "radicalization"âor "violent extremism"âis not con...

Article

Cameron Sumpter and Joseph Franco

2018-10-01

Migration, Transnational Crime and Terrorism: Exploring the Nexus in Europe and Southeast Asia

Theories of a crime-terror nexus are well established in the literature. Often conceptualized along a continuum, relationships between organizations range from contracting services and th...

Article

Frank Okyere

2015-03-01

Statebuilding, Local Governance, and Organized Crime in Mali

Countries in the Sahel region are among the poorest in Africa, sitting at the periphery of the development spectrum, and at the heart of an expanse that is confronted by a complex web of ...

Publication

Aaditya Dave

2019-08-13

Transnational Lessons from Terrorist Use of Social Media in South Asia

This paper looks at how social media platforms have been instrumentalized for a variety of purposes by terrorist organizations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and how the governmen...

Article

Corri Zoli

2017-10-02

Is There Any Defense Against Low-Tech Terror?

The Catalonia attacks are a case study in the future of violent extremism. Governments need to figure out how to respond. After the fifth low-tech terrorist attack this year alone in the ...

Article

David Parker, Julia M. Pearce, Lasse Lindekilde, and M. Brooke Rogers

2017-09-26

Challenges for Effective Counterterrorism Communication: Practitioner Insights and Policy Implications for Preventing Radicalization, Disrupting Attack Planning, and Mitigating Terrorist Attacks

Growing concerns about small-scale, low sophistication terrorist attacks, and the difficulties they present for security services, make public coproduction of security increasingly necess...

Publication

Counter Extremism Project

2017-05-01

Terrorists on Telegram

Terrorist and extremist groups use encrypted application Telegram to recruit new members, fundraise, incite to violence, and even coordinate terrorist activity. Telegramâs messaging app...

Publication

Rebecca Littman

2017-01-01

Children and Extreme Violence: insights from social science on child trajectories into and out of non-state armed groups

The United Nations University (UNU) is leading a research initiative examining child trajectories into and out of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in contemporary conflicts, including those...