This book examines the actors that shape societal dynamics leading to, or preventing, violent extremism from taking roots in their communities, including state representatives, religious institutions, and civil society actors.
The volume contributes to an emerging stream of research focusing on intra- and inter-group dynamics to explain the emergence and persistence of, or resilience against, violent extremism. It utilises an actor-centric approach, uncovering the landscape of actors that play relevant roles in shaping societal dynamics leading to, or preventing, violent extremism affecting their communities. The analysis builds on new empirical evidence collected in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia. This allows for an innovative comparative perspective on two regions in the European neighbourhood that are rarely studied together, even though they seem to share common patterns of (de-)radicalisation and violent extremism despite their distinct historical, political, and cultural trajectories and relations with the EU. In both regions, the book analyses the roles of and interactions between state, political, religious, and civil society actors in shaping community vulnerability to and/or resilience against violent extremism. Different types of community leaders are equipped with varying levels of authority, trust, legitimacy, and influence over community members. As such, the categories of actors analysed can play either detrimental or beneficial roles, which makes vulnerability and resilience to violent extremism two sides of the same coin.
This volume will be of much interest to students of countering violent extremism, terrorism, political violence, security studies, and International Relations generally.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.
Juline Beaujouan is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) based at the University of Edinburgh, as well as a senior researcher with Open Think Tank in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Véronique Dudouet is a senior advisor at the Conflict Transformation Research Department at Berghof Foundation. She was also coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 research project PAVE from 2020 to 2023.
Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic is a research fellow at the School of Religion at Trinity College Dublin, where she teaches in the areas of sociology of conflict, race, ethnicity, and identity. She is also a radicalisation expert for the Western Balkans as part of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN).
Johanna-Maria Hülzer works in the Conflict Transformation Research Department at the Berghof Foundation in Berlin, where she is part of the coordinating team of the PAVE project on community resilience to violent extremism.
Marie Kortam is an associate researcher at the French Institute of the Near-East (IFPO) in Beirut and a member of the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). She is also a research fellow at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH) in Paris, France.
Amjed Rasheed is a lecturer of Politics and International Relations of the Middle East at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. He is also a senior researcher at Open Think Tank in Kurdistan, where he specialises in International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Political Islam.
