Early Warning and Response for Preventing Radicalization and Violent Extremism

Abstract

Addressing radicalization and recruitment of youth in violent extremism (VE) has become a principal aim of the policy and programs of what is known as countering violent extremism (CVE). Yet, much of the CVE programs have taken a curative approach with a main focus on addressing consequences of radicalization and extremism once extremist violence is erupted. A preventive approach, which could be cost effective and function as a "threat minimizer," has received less attention by academics and practitioners alike. By understanding the process of radicalization and recruitment of youth into violent extremism as an evolutionary process, preventive mechanisms could be developed and implemented such as community-based early warning and early response systems by engaging local people who bear the brunt of radicalization and extremism in the first place. Because armed conflict and VE share common impetuses of violence such as inequality, socioeconomic exclusion, unemployment, poverty, and lack of security, armed conflicts and VE are increasingly overlapped and at times interconnected. While the nexus between conflict and extremism is a major challenge for practitioners on the ground, preventing violent extremism can, nonetheless, benefit from rich experiences and lessons learned in the field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding vis-à-vis community-based early warning and early response (EWER) systems. Rather than being overtly prescriptive, however, by offering tools and templates of EWER, I aim to stimulate seminal discussion by focusing on both advantages and challenges of the EWER system when transferring its approaches and ideas from the field of conflict prevention to the CVE domain.