Blog
Beyond Western Misogyny: A growing incel movement in Turkey?
November 6, 2024
By Kamil Yilmaz and Joe Whittaker The past decade has seen several lone actor attacks conducted by men who identify as involuntary celibate (incels). The movement is well-known for being an online community of men who go online to discuss their inability to form sexual or romantic relationships, often resulting in extremely misogynistic online posts. ...
Blog
The Rise and Fall of the Male State Movement
October 30, 2024
By Anna Kruglova This analysis will discuss the case of a Russian far-right movement named the Male State, and its transition from being one of the most notorious misogynist movements in Russia to one of the main online supporters and promoters of the war in Ukraine. When the war in Ukraine began, it became a ...
Blog
Threats to Democracies: A view from Australia
October 23, 2024
By Michele Grossman Like many other Western liberal democracies, Australia is currently experiencing a range of challenges to both the stability and sanctity of democratic structures and institutions and the beliefs and values that underwrite them. Threats to democracies are nothing new – they have existed for as long as democracies themselves. However, faced with ...
News
The VOX-Pol Blog turns ten years old
October 23, 2024
The VOX-Pol Blog has been running for ten years this month and currently contains nearly 500 posts. On it you’ll find book reviews, research article summaries, reflection pieces, cross-posts, and translations.  The Blog publishes short (under 1000 words) articles every week at midday on Wednesdays for our audience of researchers, policymakers, law enforcement, social media company ...
Blog
Some online conspiracy-spreaders don’t even believe the lies they’re spewing
October 16, 2024
H. Colleen Sinclair, Louisiana State University There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content. They ...
Blog
Nazis at the salad bar: The National Workers’ Alliance and mixed, unclear, and unstable ideology
October 9, 2024
By Gerard Gill Recent developments in violent extremism have included an uptick in the salience of mixed, unclear, and unstable (MUU) or ‘salad bar’ ideologies. These are worldviews where numerous, sometimes disparate perspectives combine in a dynamic and evolving manner, resulting in a belief system that is hard to comprehensively define. A growth in MUU ...
Home Slider Newsletter
VOX-Pol Newsletter 11(10) October 2024
October 8, 2024
Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 10 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. UPCOMING EVENT VOX-Pol Coordinator Stuart Macdonald is co-organising and speaking at the webinar, Addressing Terrorism and Social Media in West Africa, taking place this Thursday 10 October. VOX-Pol Member Alta Grobbelaar is also speaking at the event, and it’s chaired by Christogonus Ibe, of the group, African Youths Initiative ...
Blog
Bangladesh’s political transition viewed as opportunity by Islamic State and al-Qaeda
October 2, 2024
By Sean McCafferty and Marjuka Binte Afzal Bangladesh’s recent political turmoil has sparked interest from Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda (AQ), both seeing the regime change as a strategic opportunity. With the government in transition, security reforms needed, and jihadist propaganda targeting Bangladesh, there is a risk of increased jihadist activity during the country’s democratic ...
Blog
Three steps to talking to a loved one at risk of being radicalised into rioting
September 25, 2024
Anthony English, The Open University For some, the shocking scenes of violence which have erupted across dozens of locations in England and Northern Ireland will evoke an all-too-real concern – could someone close to me get involved in the violence? Alongside those directly affected by the act of rioting itself, there are another set of ...
Blog
Middle-aged radicalisation: why are so many of Britain’s rioters in their 40s and 50s?
September 18, 2024
Sara H Wilford, De Montfort University Look closely at the pictures of the violent unrest that has spread across England and Northern Ireland and you will notice something that is not being spoken about. The rioters seen fighting, attacking police and setting fire to buildings are often middle aged – people in their 40s, 50s ...