Factors underlying violent extremism and radicalisation that lead to terrorism and ways to effectively address this threat in Central Asia and beyond were the focus of an international roundtable discussion organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana in co-operation with the Centre for Military Strategic Research under the Ministry of Defence in Astana yesterday, 29 February 2016.
The discussion brought together some 70 participants, including VOX-Pol’s Prof. Ian Brown (Oxford Internet Institute) who presented findings from his co-authored (with Josh Cowls, MIT) VOX-Pol report Assessing the Ethics and Politics of Policing the Internet for Extremist Material, copies of which were also distributed.
Other participants included high-level officials from the Mazhilis (Kazakhstan’s Lower House of Parliament), the Presidential Administration, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministries of Defence and Interior, the National Security Committee, the Committee of Religious Affairs under the Culture and Sport Ministry, the Committee of Financial Monitoring under the Finance Ministry, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Constitutional Council.
National experts, leaders of political parties and representatives of civil society, the UN Development Programme, the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia and bilateral embassies also took part.
The OSCE’s official press release on the event may be accessed HERE.