What role can traditional authorities and religious leaders play to improve the resilience of their communities against violent extremism? Sahel, Burkina Faso’s northern region, is a key region in which to probe into this question for two reasons. First, it has been the region in Burkina Faso most affected by…

The RESOLVE Network’s multiyear research on Community-Based Armed Groups (CBAGs) has established critical findings for the international community on how to engage, manage and transform violent actors in conflict-affected states. While mitigation efforts tend to target anti-state extremist organizations, understanding the behavior of CBAGs is essential for comprehending complex conflict…

Governments, social media companies and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned about the threat of those who are radicalised online and turn to violent extremism. However, the evidence base for this concern is not fully formed. For instance, it is not yet clear if those who are being radicalised…

The re-emergence of Australia’s far-right in the mid-2010s saw an unprecedented level of online mobilisation and a wave of street protests across the country which were often met with counter-protests by anti-racist and anti-fascist networks, most of them associated with far-left groups. This often resulted in clashes, sometimes violent, between…

For the past four years, Burkina Faso’s eastern region has been the theater of violent extremist expansion. Rather than a mere spillover dynamic, violent extremist organizations (VEOs) have successfully implanted themselves in eastern communities, exploiting widespread grievances against the central state and local elites amid decades of state neglect and…

A question preoccupying many Lebanese is: how does their country break free of Iran’s domination and that of its local ally, Hezbollah? Is there a deal that can be reached where they would be willing to give up a measure of control? The instrument of Iranian authority has been similar…

Questions surrounding Hezbollah’s presence in South America resurfaced when a former Israeli official was the target of an assassination attempt in Colombia in November. In a government report addressed to the government, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad linked the effort to Hezbollah. It was part of a plot to assassinate “a…

Speaking in Abuja last fall, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken implored African governments to enact reforms in response to their citizens’ demands for better governance. The ongoing crises in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Burkina Faso together with recent allegations of Nigerian police brutality and a growing awareness of the connections…

Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi detonated a suicide vest last week, according to US officials, as American special operators closed in on his position. He will not be missed. Al-Qurashi was directly and indirectly responsible for atrocities that included murder, rape, and torture. US President Joe Biden described…

The social media accounts of the new so-called ‘National Resistance Front’ (NRF) in Afghanistan give the impression of a raging insurgency already taking place against the Taliban. The talk is of ‘intense clashes’, with the Taliban suffering ‘heavy casualties.’ There are exaggerated accounts of running battles and successful ambushes against…

The return of foreign fighters and their families to the European Union has mostly been considered a security threat by member States, which consequently adopt repressive measures aimed at providing an immediate, short-term response to this perceived threat. In addition to this strong-arm approach, reintegration strategies have also been used…

Spared by the spread of violent extremism in the Sahel until 2015, Burkina Faso has since continued to spiral further into violence and instability. In this context, the military coup conducted on 24 January 2022 emerged as the culmination of the population’s growing discontent with the state’s capacity to find…