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USIP Publication: From COVID to the Caliphate: A Look at Violent Extremism Heading into 2021

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12.18.2020 at 07:51pm

This piece originally appeared on USIP.org.

Full Article: https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/12/covid-caliphate-look-violent-extremism-heading-2021

By Colin P. Clarke

It is more important than ever that policy to counter violent extremism be driven by informed decision-making.

Heading into 2021, the violent extremist landscape is more diverse than at any previous point in the last two decades since the start of the U.S.-led Global War on Terrorism. While that effort was almost exclusively focused on combating violent extremist organizations motivated by Salafi-jihadism, there has been a universal recognition that other forms of extremism have proliferated. Many governments and states feel completely unprepared and underequipped to deal with these new forms of extremism, which include, but are not limited to, racially and ethnically motivated terrorism, terrorism inspired by extreme misogyny, left-wing terrorism, and the rapid spread of conspiracy theories.

At the 2020 RESOLVE Network Global Forum, we focused on looking beyond the horizon to identify new forms of violent extremism and how those will manifest in the future. Several themes in particular are worth highlighting when considering the complex nature of the violent extremism landscape: the continued threat posed by remnants of the Islamic State, the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on violent extremism and terrorist groups, and concepts like cultural loss and other so-called grievance narratives that violent extremist organizations leverage for recruitment and propaganda.

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