Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism: A Handbook of International Best Practices (original) (raw)

2021, Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism: A Handbook of International Best Practices

Commissioned by the Georgian Centre for Strategy and Development (GCSD) as a component of a four-year multi-tier programme on ‘Enhancing the Capacity of Georgia in Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalization’ funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, this Handbook was developed to facilitate Georgia’s ‘Permanent Interagency Commission on Elaboration of the National Counterterrorism Strategy (CNCS)’ Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) policy development and cooperative programming processes. In a field crowded with documentation and narratives on diverse P/CVE approaches, this Handbook’s objective is to focus the audience’s attention on counter-terrorism and P/CVE best practice at international and European levels. At the same time, the Handbook enables practitioners from state institutions to sustain institutional P/CVE knowledge and to develop capacity to address P/CVE issues across Georgian society. The Handbook can also be used for training purposes, as well as by other stakeholders to develop their own capacity to implement projects aimed at understanding and limiting the threat of violent extremism. Beginning with an introduction to the evolution of terrorism over the last fifty years, the Handbook outlines the challenges of terrorism to democratic states, and the legal and policy dimensions of effective counter-terrorism and extremism prevention. The Handbook then addresses specific thematic issues, including institutional frameworks for P/CVE, cooperation between state and society, radicalization prevention, the return of foreign terrorist fighters and their families, and broader counter-terrorism and P/CVE communication challenges. Placing an emphasis on developing original material and incorporating a variety of relevant and easily accessible best practice materials, the aim across all seven chapters is to ensure that a ‘Whole-of-Society’ approach to P/CVE issues is emphasised in a user-friendly format. Against the background of fifty years of terrorism, democratic societies are still exposed to a variety of risks posed by local and strategic terrorism. Although waves of terrorism occur in peaks and troughs, as contested and ungoverned spaces continue to harbour often well-funded and supplied terrorist and insurgent groups, social and technological developments compound the significant risks posed by even small terrorist movements and cells. To counter these threats, the legal and policy framework for counter-terrorism and counter-extremism programming will continue to evolve, not least to disrupt online terrorist recruitment, communication, and radicalization activities, and also to limit the transit of terrorists across international travel networks. In this context, every democratic society faces the dual challenge of maintaining their preparedness to counter terrorist threats, and to adapt their P/CVE approaches to contain new or persistent terrorist threats. In the interim, Georgia, as with other European democracies, will remain exposed to a variety of counter-terrorism and P/CVE challenges. Limiting Georgia’s exposure to international terrorist networks, creating effective counter-terrorism policy, ensuring effective P/CVE practice, and enhancing Georgia’s cooperative security efforts will require further development of existing P/CVE capacities, particularly in terms of maintaining substantive institutional and multi-stakeholder approaches to terrorist and radicalization threats. In so doing, Georgia will continue to contribute to European and international security.