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In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, a series of events can ostensibly be relied on. As we mourn, the media frantically try to gather information about the attacker(s) and, upon learning that they used social media for some part of their activity, it is suggested by journalists, politicians, and pundits that they were radicalised […]

On 16 June 2016, ICCT Associate Fellow Dr. Haroro Ingram presented at a workshop about whether and how media reporting may act as an amplifier of violent extremist propaganda aims.

On 19 June 2017, ICCT Associate Fellow J.M. Berger published an article in The Atlantic discussing the emerging pattern of reciprocal and escalating violence between various extremist groups. Berger argues that while Jihadist extremism is a mature extremist movement, anti-Muslim extremism is currently more diffuse. However, the symbiotic relationship between warring extremist groups sets a dangerous precedent. […]

In recent years Europe has faced an increasing wave of so-called ‘lone actor’ attacks committed by jihadist terrorists. This trend has continued in 2017. For example, the attacks in London and Stockholm, which were simple but devastating in their methodology, used vehicles to run pedestrians down. While the London attacker disembarked to engage in a […]

In a March 2017 paper published by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism—The Hague, this author introduced a framework for studying the construction of extremist identity through ideological texts. This Report will examine the framework against a historical example of the so-called Islamic State (IS) propaganda to illustrate how messaging strategies can be based on insights derived […]

By Lorenzo Vidino, Francesco Marone and Eva Entenmann. This report examines all jihadist-motivated terrorist attacks carried out in Europe and North America since the declaration of the Caliphate by the Islamic State group in June 2014. By analyzing the 51 attacks and their perpetrators, this study constitutes the first comprehensive account of attacks carried out during […]

By Alastair Reed, Johanna Pohl and Marjolein Jegerings. In light of Islamic State’s decreasing military power and growing emphasis on a decentralised operational strategy, the threat posed by foreign fighters is shifting, with some aspects becoming less threatening as others become more salient. This Policy Brief provides a concise outline of four main threats related to […]

On 5 June 2017, ICCT Associate Fellows Colin P. Clarke and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross were cited in the Boston Herald. Gartenstein-Ross argues that the attacks that occurred the United Kingdom over the past three weeks should no longer be considered as “lone-wolf” attacks, given their rapidity and the way in which they tie into a group strategy. Similarly, Clarke argues that anticipating […]

On 5 June 2017, ICCT Research Fellow J.M. Berger was featured in an article by The New Yorker about how terrorism is changing. As so-called “Islamic State” (IS) is rapidly losing ground, this does not mean that the group will be any less dangerous. “The West can do things on the margins to be safer,” Berger said, but it still […]

As surely as night follows day, demands to defeat “the ideology” emerge after a terrorist attack, in increasingly urgent tones. After the terrorist attack Saturday night in London, Prime Minister Theresa May offered the latest iteration of that ritual, a refrain heard since the days of George W. Bush: Defeating this ideology is one of […]