Why are some communities more likely to experience violent extremism than others? An answer to this question is essential for the formulation of effective preventive EU approaches to strengthening societal resilience. Therefore, it is one of the core questions of the new NUPI-led project, PREVEX – Preventing Violent Extremism in the Balkans and the MENA: Strengthening Resilience in Enabling Environments (2020–2023).
The overarching objective of PREVEX is to put forward more fine-tuned and effective approaches to preventing violent extremism by improving the understanding of how different drivers of violent extremism operate. Focusing on the broader MENA region and the Balkans, context-sensitive, in-depth case studies of the occurrence and non-occurrence of violent extremism will be carried out and then brought together in a regional comparison. This project involves organizations in 14 different countries that are working on strategies how to improve our understanding in different case studies, in which IDM will contribute to several country and regional analyses.
PREVEX will employ a bottom-up approach to local-global dynamics combined with an institutionalist analysis of the responses of the EU, its member states and third countries.
A key innovative aspect of the project’s analytical approach is the emphasis on the non-occurrence of violent extremism in ‘enabling environments’.
This allows PREVEX to proceed beyond the state-of-the-art through a specific, and effective, approach to not only why violent extremism occurs, but also why it does not occur.
Learn more and stay updated on the progress of the project by following the link:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 870724.