Hundreds of thousands of athletes and tourists are about to arrive in Rio de Janeiro from around the world for this year’s Summer Olympics, whose opening ceremony is just more than two weeks away. Security is going to be extremely tight. The police and army are on high alert for…
The causes and consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency as well as its possible solutions have been subjected to different interpretations among scholars, politicians, and journalists. Little is known, however, about how the Nigerian populace thinks about the uprising. The present study contributes to the literature on Boko Haram by…
Shadi Hamid and Rashid Dar provide a brief cheat sheet on the distinctions between the terms and movements in Islam – “Islamism,” “Salafism,” and “jihadism.”
One day in 2012, a group of policemen in a Danish town were sitting around in the office when an unusual call came in. This town, called Aarhus, is a clean, orderly place with very little crime. So what the callers were saying really held the cops’ attention. They were…
This study analyzes how Inspire and Dabiq seek to appeal to and radicalize English-speaking Muslims. It examines how each magazine strategically designs ingroup, Other, crisis, and solution constructs and interplays these via value-, dichotomy-, and crisis-reinforcing narratives. This analysis also explores how narrative, imagery, and counternarrative messaging are used to…
The mounting tide of foreign fighters leaving Britain for the Middle East to fight, sacrifice or find new lives has blighted European governments and led to the further tightening up of counter-terrorism measures. Since the first British arrest of a Syrian returnee (Choudhury) in 2014, the latest figures of foreign…
MIRAMAR, Fla. — Nezar Hamze stood before those crowded into the mosque’s prayer room, speaking through his headset mic. He explained their rights to self-defense and talked up the benefits of home security systems. And had all the women received their complimentary canisters of pepper spray? Nods spread across the…
The following publication discusses the development, implementation and evaluation of Youth Innovation Labs conducted by the Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN). Youth Innovation Labs are immersive, activist-led events that provide a space for innovation, cocreation and learning while giving participants the contacts, tools and resources needed to develop counter-narrative campaigns…
The creation of strategic narratives is at the core of modern strategic communication strategies in business, politics and even in warfare. The battle of narratives has become the bedrock of international politics, and social media a powerful tool to fight this battle. The unique characteristic of social media is that…
Over the decade and a half since the 9/11 attacks, calls for more international counterterrorism cooperation have become a stock element of political leaders’ speeches. Following each successive terrorist attack, leaders have underscored the need for greater collaboration among military, intelligence, law enforcement and criminal justice officials to counter increasingly…
Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest Muslim countries, is generally viewed as a success story with a strong tradition of secular democracy. Unfortunately, this assertion rests on a weak empirical foundation. Since becoming independent from Pakistan in 1971, democracy and secularism have been consistently undermined. Moreover, since 2005 Bangladesh has…
In March, Kenya became one of 60 countries to have developed an action plan to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325), on women, peace and security. Besides the principles of the 2010 Constitution, the action plan – like the resolution – focuses on four…
