Countering Violent Extremism Online and Offline

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12267
• Published date: 01 February 2017
• Date: 01 February 2017
• Author: Susan Szmania,Phelix Fincher

POLICY ESSAY

TERRORIST USE OF THE INTERNET

Countering Violent Extremism Online

and Offline

Susan Szmania

University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of

Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)

Department of Homeland Security

Phelix Fincher

Department of Homeland Security

In the wake of devastating attacks by violent extremists around the world, policy makers

have invested considerable effort into understanding terrorists’ use of the Internet as

they radicalize and mobilize to violence. Tothat end, the article “TerroristUse of the In-

ternet by the Numbers: Quantifying Behaviors, Patterns, and Processes” by Paul Gill, Emily

Corner, Maura Conway, Amy Thornton, Mia Bloom, and John Horgan (2017, this issue)

contributes important data to a timely policy discussion. The authors’ central finding, “that

there is no easy offline versus online violent radicalization dichotomy to be drawn,” high-

lights a gap in our current conceptualization of the radicalization process and suggests several

implications, particularly for countering violent extremism (CVE) policies and programs.

Implications for Countering ViolentEx tremism

CVE has risen to prominence as a policy goal, not only for national governing bodies but

also for international institutions like the United Nations (UN). In 2015, the UN issued

its Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, which recognizes that “counter-terrorism

measures have not been sufficient to prevent the spread of violent extremism” (p. 2).

Instead, CVE aims to “prevent the pull of terrorist recruitment and influence by building

resilience among populations vulnerable to radicalization” (Holmer,2013: 2). In the United

States, federal CVE guidance has stressed the role of empowering communities to develop

and implement locally tailored prevention and intervention programs to address violent

extremism. In Europe, including in the United Kingdom, CVE efforts have been described

The views and conclusions contained in this article are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as

necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland

Security or of START. Direct correspondence to Susan Szmania, 8400 Baltimore Avenue, College Park,

Maryland 20740 (e-mail: sszmania@umd.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12267 Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government

work and is in the public domain in the USA

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Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 16 rIssue 1