ABSTRACT
For more than a decade, resilience has been a key feature of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) frameworks in different countries and regions, mobilised by a range of theoretical models and national or multinational policy frameworks to drive policy and practice in strengthening protective factors against extremist violence. Yet despite the enthusiasm with which ‘resilience to violent extremism’ has been conceptualised and promoted through policy and programming, there remain key questions about the ways in which: first, current concepts of resilience to violent extremism are operationalised; second, how fit for purpose these concepts are in relation to the diversifying ideological and tactical landscape of violent extremist threats; and, third, whether the field has paid sufficient attention not only to resilience to violent extremism but also the resilience of violent extremist movements and networks themselves and to the maladaptive resilience that can characterise violent radicalisation trajectories. In this discussion, I draw on a range of scholarship and analyses, including an interrelated series of articles, chapters, and reports I’ve published in recent years, to explore these three questions and propose further directions that can help guide consideration and implications for future policy and research on resilience to violent extremism.
