• TERRORISM

    U.S. officials tasked with tracking Islamic State are seeing worrisome signs that the terror group’s core leadership is strengthening control over its global network of affiliates despite a series of key losses. Specifically, the United States is raising concerns about the group’s General Directorate of Provinces, a series of nine regional offices set up over the past several years to sustain the group’s reputation and global capabilities.

  • EXTREMISM

    There is a sense among senior U.S. counterterrorism officials that the actions of a handful of Americans are helping to drive the growth of racist and far-right extremist groups around the world. Specifically, these officials point to mass shootings and other high-profile attacks in the United States, which have helped to turn the perpetrators into martyrs for like-minded groups and individuals.

  • EXTREMISM

    Four members of the Oath Keepers were sentenced last week on seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The four defendants were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to prevent Members of Congress from discharging their official duties.

  • EXTREMISM

    Support among military veterans for extremist groups and extremist ideals appears similar to or less than levels seen among the U.S. public in general, despite fears that it could be higher, according to a new RAND report. The U.S. military and veteran service organizations should continue to explore what drives some active-duty personnel and veterans to endorse extremist beliefs and join extremist causes.

  • EXTREMISM

    People with specific personality traits who perceive their cultural values as threatened are more likely to show hostility and support violent extremist behavior directed against that threat. This is shown in a new psychological study.

  • ARGUMENT: THE RISKS OF WEB3

    While tech companies, politics, and civil society continue to discuss how to regulate social networks, a new age of the internet is dawning: the Web3. Julia Handle and Louis Jarvers write that with the technological advancements of Web3, it is critical to examine their application to extremism.

  • EXTREMISM

    Experts on violent extremism believe it isn’t only the number of Oath Keepers that is a problem, it is their makeup. A significant number of their members are veterans – both female and male – who bring military skills to the group and also serve as recruiters for other active and former armed service personnel.

  • EXTREMISM

    Simmering grievances, political divides, a steady proliferation of online neo-Nazi propaganda, and the approach of the 2024 presidential election are keeping the United States stuck in a “heightened threat environment,” according to the latest warning from DHS.

  • QUAGMIRES

    The Iraq and Ukraine wars have notable differences from a U.S. foreign policy perspective – chiefly, thousands of American soldiers died fighting in Iraq, while the U.S. does not have any ground troops in Ukraine. But assessing the Iraq War, and its long aftermath, can still help articulate concerns about the United States’ getting involved in intense violence in another faraway place.

  • TERRORISM FINANCING

    How do Violent nonstate actors (VNSA) finance their operations, and what do they use this financing for? What kinetic and nonkinetic counter–threat financing (CTF) methods have been successful in disrupting this financing and why? Which CTF methods have been counterproductive and why? How can the U.S. Army support efforts to disrupt VNSA financing?

  • EXTREMISM

    A DC police lieutenant was indicted on for leaking to Enrique Tarrio, the leader of The Proud Boys, information about a police investigation of Tarrio, and then lying about his communication with Tarrio.

  • EXTREMISM

    Not all nonprofits are principled or embrace missions everyone considers worthy of the tax-exempt status that the government grants some 2 million organizations. A large part of the strength of the nonprofit sector lies in its diversity of causes and viewpoints, and therefore it’s better for the government to err on the side of authorizing too many tax-exempt organizations than to quash free speech. But it should be clear that charities that encourage violence and cheer on extremism are not contributing to society with any of the purposes the IRS allows.

  • ARGUMENT: SAFER VIROLOGICAL RESEARCH

    Lab Accidents happen, and they aren’t especially rare. A new book — appropriately titled Pandora’s Gamble — offers a shocking accounting of the problem, identifying more than a thousand accidents reported to federal regulators from 2008 to 2012. David Wallace-Wells, referring to the recommendations from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity on how to minimize the risks from research biolabs, writes: “These suggestions would not eliminate the risk of lab accidents, but they would reduce the risk — and fairly simply.”

  • EXTREMISM

    Following the series of terrorist attacks between 2015 and 2017, German twitter users shifted their language towards that of the far right AfD party. Eventually voters rewarded the party at the 2017 election.

  • TERRORISM

    Twenty years after the Sept. 11 attacks, declassified FBI documents have changed a big piece of the story about possible Saudi government help to the hijackers. Families of the victims want more information.

  • TERRORISM

    Two men were sentenced in federal court Friday, 21 April, for crimes related to a scheme to attack power grids in the United States in furtherance of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism. DHS and the FBI have warned that domestic terrorists were increasingly focused on disrupting the U.S. power grid.

  • TERRORISM

    The U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (the Fund) today notified a group of eligible claimants of upcoming payments totaling approximately $2.7 billion that the Fund will begin issuing in the coming weeks. The Fund will issue these payments to 5,361 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks and certain spouses and children of the victims of those attacks.

  • IMAGININIG THREATS

    From high-tech fighting machines to supercomputers and killer robots, science fiction has a lot to say about war. You might be surprised to learn that some governments are now turning their attention to these fantastical stories as a way to think about possible futures and try and ward off any potential threats.

  • EXTREMISM

    An increase in social media activity on “hard-right” platforms — those that purport to represent viewpoints not welcome on “mainstream” platforms — contributes to rightwing civil unrest in the United States, according to a new study. A new Yale-led study finds evidence that social media activity on hard-right platforms contributes to political unrest offline. “The magnitude of the effect we found is modest but two characteristics of social media and civil unrest caution against dismissing it,” said Yale sociologist Daniel Karell.

  • EXTREMISM

    Substack continues to attract extremists and conspiracy theorists who routinely use the site to profit from spreading antisemitism, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. Platforms with more lenient content moderation policies, like Substack, provide fertile ground for the spread of hateful rhetoric and false information – a known catalyst for offline harm and violence.