[New publication] In the public interest - Community engagement in counter-terrorism

In a new publication, researcher Zsófia Baumann (Asser Institute/University of Amsterdam) highlights how community engagement can significantly enhance policies on preventing and countering violent extremism (‘P/CVE’). Baumann argues that by empowering local communities, these policies can more effectively address radicalisation and support the reintegration of former violent extremists. 

In her research paper titled "Community-Engagement in preventing and countering violent extremism - In the Interest of Communities?", Baumann explores how civil society organisations and community members can play a crucial role in both prevention and later disengagement efforts.  

The research emphasises that communities are fundamental to people's lives and can determine whether individuals radicalise or successfully disengage from violent extremism. The latter is particularly relevant for minority communities, such as Muslims in Western Europe, where shared ethnic, religious, or socio-economic experiences provide unique insights into people's grievances and motivations for joining violent extremist groups, and can therefore aid their disengagement from these. 

Baumann identifies a significant gap in current research, noting the limited exploration of communities' dual role as both the focus of and partners in preventing and countering violent extremism efforts. She also highlights the absence of a clear definition of "community" and the unclear delineation of expected roles, particularly regarding preventing and countering violent extremism efforts aimed at Islamist radicalisation and interactions with Muslim minority communities in Europe. 

Serving the public interest 
The chapter establishes how communities can serve as protective factors in the “disengagement-deradicalisation-reintegration” process, identifying different mechanisms through which communities can contribute both within government-led efforts and through community-based organisations. 

Baumann concludes that meaningful community engagement represents a crucial element of successful preventing and countering violent extremism policies. She advocates for empowering communities to serve not only government interests, but their own and broader society's as well, providing local solutions to locally rooted problems while potentially preventing future radicalisation. 

Baumann writes: “Engaging the various communities who surround (former) violent extremists is in the interest of not only governments and the communities themselves, but it serves the public interest as well. That individuals can disengage from violent extremist ideologies and groups, are able to pursue primary human goods in a pro-social way and can become useful members of society is in everyone’s long-term benefit as it helps prevent these people from (re-)engaging in violence. In the long term, a society where this common goal is shared by all actors, where individuals’ rights are respected and minority communities are not stigmatised and marginalised throughout the process, is better equipped to counter threats, such as radicalisation and terrorism, while maintaining the legitimacy of governments and the trust that exists between government and society.” 

Read the full paper 

About Zsófia Baumann 
Zsófia Baumann is a junior researcher at the research strand ‘In the public interest: accountability of the state and the prosecution of crimes’, where she works on counterterrorism (CT) and preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) within the context of projects related to the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF).  

She has worked on a wide range of topics, including border security management and terrorist travel, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism, as well as the use of new and emerging technologies by terrorist actors, and by states in CT. She previously worked on and co-authored the report entitled ‘The First Decade of the Global Counterterrorism Forum: Monitoring, Evaluating and Looking Forward’ and was one of the main developers of the Foreign Terrorist Fighters Knowledge Hub, an interactive database on those who joined terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. 

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