Each year, the goal of Hedayah’s Annual International Research Conference is to gather leading experts to share new research, methodologies, best practices, and findings for the benefit of the broader community of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in fields related to countering extremism and violent extremism. In 2023, the Research Conference…

To what extent can climate change adaptation be incorporated into counterterrorism strategies in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) region? As part of the Lake Chad region counterterrorism strategy, we explore how climate change adaptation can be used to prevent local population recruitment into violent extremism. Over the years, the Lake…

This policy brief seeks to identify recommendations for governments, regulators and other international policymaking entities to design effective policies for preventing and countering violent extremism policies in gaming spaces, to enforce standards, and to support the development of capacity to moderate online harms.

After more than 20 years of research, it is well established that states used counter-terrorism measures (CTMs) to close civic spaces for civil society under the pretext of curbing terrorism. However, the specific mechanisms by which these occur, or the responses of civil society organizations (CSOs), remain hard to grasp….

In an increasingly digital world, gaming and gaming-adjacent platforms have emerged as vital social spaces, attracting more than 3 billion active users globally. These platforms, which range from immersive video games to forums and livestreaming sites, offer unique opportunities to build communities, foster creativity and promote education. However, they also…

This article considers how ideology motivates lone actor terrorists to use violence. A significant body of literature in terrorism studies sees ideology as a much less important driver of terrorist action than other phenomena such as personal crisis and status seeking. Yet these studies often reach this conclusion without first…

Vigilantism is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. As a state with various “alternatively governed” spaces the country has leant on vigilantes of differing forms as a source of authority where the state has been ineffective. Albeit proving controversial, their successes cannot be unrecognized. This article explores the public’s perception…

The GCTF Initiative on Education for the Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism – co-led by the European Union and Morocco and with the support of Hedayah, the International Center of Excellence for Countering Extremism & Violent Extremism – undertook the research component of the Initiative in relation to the framework…

This systematic review explores the utilization of crowdsourcing for geoinformation in enhancing awareness and mitigating terrorism-related disasters. Out of 519 studies identified in the database search, 108 were deemed eligible for analysis. We focused on articles employing various forms of crowdsourcing platforms, such as Twitter (now known as X), Facebook,…

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a radicalized group that has the goal of building an Islamic caliphate globally. ISIS recruits its members globally and spreads the extremism narrative widely. ISIS recruits more men to fulfill their roles as fighters and martyrs, but the role of women…