Blog

The Brookings Institution, in conjunction with the State of Qatar, convened the 12th annual US-Islamic World Forum in Doha from 1 – 3 June. The Forum’s theme was “Changing Assumptions,” which referred to historic shifts in geopolitical realities affecting the United States and Muslim-majority countries, as well as to societal and cultural norms. VOX-Pol’s Coordinator Dr ...

VOX-Pol participated in the Youth Against Violent Extremism conference in Oslo on 4 June. The conference, organised by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was attended by 150 civil society organisations from across Europe who were invited to share their concerns, sentiments and suggestions regarding violent extremism with each ...

by Clint Watts A month ago, the Washington Post published the most insightful article to date on the challenges the U.S. government has encountered battling al Qaeda, the Islamic State and jihadis writ large in social media.  The U.S. State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) has been charged with a mission impossible: countering jihadi ...

This blog is being published in two parts. Part two on 10 June by Nico Prucha With Arabic as the most important language for Islam, as the Qur’an is the speech of God (kalimat allah), revealed in Arabic, the lingua jihadica is likewise Arabic. Arabic key words of the jihadist segment, as a consequence, have ...

VOX-Pol coordinator Dr Maura Conway attended the 7th European Forum of the Family Online Safety Institute in Brussels on May 12 at the invitation of FOSI. The event, which focused on European perspectives on child online safety, was held in Brussels with the support of Google, Twitter, Facebook and Orange. Keynote speaker, UNICEF’s Child Protection ...

by Sajda Mughal It is becoming increasingly evident that, in the words of the former Conservative party chair, Lady Warsi, Britain is“fighting an ever-losing battle” to prevent extremists from radicalising people online. While police are trying urgently to locate missing Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, who have believed to have ...

A group of 18 students from the University of South Dakota visited Dublin City University on 14 May as part of VOX-Pol’s student outreach. The students are enrolled in a University of South Dakota module on ‘Radicalism and Revolutions,’ which has a specific focus on the Irish War of Independence in the early 20th Century ...

by Maura Conway Some scholars and others remain skeptical of a significant role for the Internet in processes of violent radicalisation. There is increasing concern on the part of other scholars, and increasingly also policymakers and publics, that high and increasing levels of always-on Internet access and the production and wide dissemination—and thence easy availability—of ...

Welcome to Vol. 2, Iss. 2 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. The VOX-Pol Network of Excellence is a European Union Framework Programme 7 funded academic research network focused on researching the prevalence, contours, functions, and impacts of Violent Online Political Extremism and responses to it. It is a five-year programme which commenced on 1 January, 2014. We ...

VOX-Pol is offering opportunities for researchers working in Violent Online Political Extremism to further expand and strengthen their research careers under its Researcher Exchange Programme. The Programme enables scientific visits and research stays in a partner institution within the VOX-Pol network. Opportunities are available for those at the early stages of their career as well as established researchers as ...