The Politics of Preventing Violent Extremism
Liberal Democracy, Civil Society, and Countering Radicalization
Oxford University Press
Published on 10. July 2025
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-19-895378-4 (ISBN)
Description
'Preventing Violent Extremism' policies have surged in the post 9/11 era - with most nations and International Organisations now implementing some form of 'PVE'. The Politics of Preventing Violent Extremism is built around the novel contention that citizens are vulnerable to extremist ideologies which warp their perceptions, desires, and actions. This is a fundamental reworking of how governments have understood their citizens; modernist assumptions about a rational decision-making subject have given way to understandings of a vulnerable subject who can, under pressure, be captured by extremist ideologies and turn towards subversive, even terrorist, actions.
The book explores the emergence and variation of PVE policies, using case studies from Britain, France, Norway, Finland, Croatia, Czechia, and Lithuania. Across Western, Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, different tools are used to protect the citizenry from extremist influences and to reclaim their allegiance. Conceptions of civil society are particularly important for this work; civil society denotes a space outside direct government control where norms and values are shaped. This is where, for the PVE agenda, extremism lurks. In some countries, deep and exaggerated concerns are expressed by officials about the hostile takeover of societal space by extremist actors. In other countries, the threat to civil society is framed in more insidious terms as the failure of integrating migrants within society, and the exclusion and 'outsiderness' that results, rather than deliberate attempts by extremists to colonise civil society space. This book demonstrates how PVE measures are shaped by national and regional conceptions of civil society and political culture, varying between highly individualised pre-crime referral programs in Britian, to integration-focused programs enacted by welfare state actors in the Nordics, to the absence of pre-crime interventions in constitutional republics like France, and the historic democracy protection agenda of Czechia.
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
The book explores the emergence and variation of PVE policies, using case studies from Britain, France, Norway, Finland, Croatia, Czechia, and Lithuania. Across Western, Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, different tools are used to protect the citizenry from extremist influences and to reclaim their allegiance. Conceptions of civil society are particularly important for this work; civil society denotes a space outside direct government control where norms and values are shaped. This is where, for the PVE agenda, extremism lurks. In some countries, deep and exaggerated concerns are expressed by officials about the hostile takeover of societal space by extremist actors. In other countries, the threat to civil society is framed in more insidious terms as the failure of integrating migrants within society, and the exclusion and 'outsiderness' that results, rather than deliberate attempts by extremists to colonise civil society space. This book demonstrates how PVE measures are shaped by national and regional conceptions of civil society and political culture, varying between highly individualised pre-crime referral programs in Britian, to integration-focused programs enacted by welfare state actors in the Nordics, to the absence of pre-crime interventions in constitutional republics like France, and the historic democracy protection agenda of Czechia.
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
Reviews / Votes
For readers prepared to engage deeply, this book is a valuable resource in exploring the impact of civil society and government on the mainstreaming of PVE. * Kat Osborne, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-895378-4 (9780198953784)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Charlotte Heath-Kelly is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. She has received awards from the European Research Council and Wellcome Trust to explore how counterterrorism is entering the space of health and social care and has published her work in journals including Security Dialogue, International Political Sociology, Parliamentary Affairs, Theoretical Criminology and European Journal of International Security.
Sadi Shanaah is a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. He has worked as a Research Fellow on the ERC funded projects 'NeoliberalTerror' and 'PeaceReturn' in the PAIS department of the University of Warwick. His interests lie in the study of political violence and the socio-political effects of existential risk perception. He has published in journals such as Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Social Problems, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Critical Studies on Terrorism.
Sadi Shanaah is a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. He has worked as a Research Fellow on the ERC funded projects 'NeoliberalTerror' and 'PeaceReturn' in the PAIS department of the University of Warwick. His interests lie in the study of political violence and the socio-political effects of existential risk perception. He has published in journals such as Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Social Problems, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Critical Studies on Terrorism.
Author
Professor of Politics and International StudiesProfessor of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
Research FellowResearch Fellow, University of Warwick
Content
Introduction: Preventing Violent Extremism and the Competition for Allegiance
1: The Long(er) History of Preventing and Countering Extremism
2: The Long History of Vulnerability: Prevention, Crime, and Security
3: Britain and France: PVE and Civil Society in Western Europe
4: Experimental Interventions: Multi-Agency PVE in Britain and France
5: Preventing Outsiders: Inclusion, Integration, and Compulsory Belonging in Nordic PVE
6: Local Democracy, Welfare, and Terrorism Prevention: PVE and the Nordic Welfare State
7: Performing Western Belonging through PVE: Lithuania, Czechia, and Croatia
Conclusion
References
Index
1: The Long(er) History of Preventing and Countering Extremism
2: The Long History of Vulnerability: Prevention, Crime, and Security
3: Britain and France: PVE and Civil Society in Western Europe
4: Experimental Interventions: Multi-Agency PVE in Britain and France
5: Preventing Outsiders: Inclusion, Integration, and Compulsory Belonging in Nordic PVE
6: Local Democracy, Welfare, and Terrorism Prevention: PVE and the Nordic Welfare State
7: Performing Western Belonging through PVE: Lithuania, Czechia, and Croatia
Conclusion
References
Index