Daniel Koehler

Daniel Koehler is the founding Director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS), Fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism and Editor in Chief of the JD Journal for Deradicalization. He also advises the Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on guiding the state-wide CVE activities. Daniel has long practical experience in deradicalisation counselling and program design. He recently published his first two monographs: Understanding Deradicalization: Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism (2017) and Right-Wing Terrorism in the 21st Century: The ‘National Socialist Underground’ and the History of Terror from the Far-Right in Germany (2017) with Routledge. In 2016, he was appointed to be the first court expert on deradicalisation in the United States of America at the Federal District Court Minneapolis, where he gave witness on individual defenders to inform the sentencing process and trained probation officers, as well as other federal agents, in CVE coordination. As a co-founder of the Mothers for Life network, the only global family network of parents affected by violent extremist radicalisation, he is very active in building innovative CVE structures around the world. His research focuses on quality standards in deradicalisation/CVE, family counselling, CVE as counter-terrorism, and right-wing terrorism.

Key ICCT Publications:

Koehler, D. Germany targets one of its largest far-right domestic extremist groups. Perspective, The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 9 December 2022

Clubb, G., O’Connor, R., Koehler, D. and Schewe, J. The Importance of Public Relations in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. Policy Brief, The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 17 February 2022

Koehler, D. A Threat from Within? Exploring the Link between the Extreme Right and the Military. Perspective, The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 7 October 2019