Countering violent extremism

Governance Social Development Humanitarian Conflict

The term ‘violent extremism’ has many definitions. Those seeking to protect citizens and political systems use it to categorizes crimes; others argue there is no such thing, seeing use of the expression as politically motivated. And yet the term has become ubiquitous. The Global Extremism Monitor of the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics, for example, used it in counting that, in June 2016 alone, 27 religious extremist groups were responsible for 314 violent incidents in 28 countries around the world. The five deadliest of these incidents were in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somali, Niger and Iraq, where at least 577 people were killed (Tony Blair Foundation 2016). These numbers do not make it clear exactly what the nature of the extremism was.