PERSPECTIVE: Countering violent extremism (CVE)To Prevent Extremist Violence in the United States, Think Beyond the Homeland Security Box

Published 7 September 2020

Over the past decade, with the FBI focused on surveilling and otherwise investigating suspected terrorists, the United States has relied on the Department of Homeland Security to work with local law enforcement, municipalities and communities to strengthen their capacity to prevent violent extremism. “Our research and experience shows that the department’s emphasis on security can be counterproductive and that the most promising strategies can be found in models and partnerships led by actors not involved in security,” Eric Rosand, and Stevan Weine write.

Over the past decade, with the FBI focused on surveilling and otherwise investigating suspected terrorists, the United States has relied on the Department of Homeland Security to work with local law enforcement, municipalities and communities to strengthen their capacity to prevent violent extremism. Eric Rosand, and Stevan Weine write in Lawfare that under President Obama, DHS provided risk awareness briefings; advised on pilot implementation projects in Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis; co-led an interagency task force focused on countering violent extremism (CVE) in the United States; and set up an office focused on building partnerships with communities. The Office for Community Partnerships administered seed grants to support community-based projects, focused in particular on Muslim communities, to foster trust between law enforcement and the populations they serve, and to prevent and intervene with individuals radicalizing to violence. The projects included, for example, work to build trust between the Boston police and the local Somali-immigrant community through a police-led mentorship and skill development program for Somali American youth that resulted in “increases in protective factors and skills in the youth (e.g. conflict resolution) as well as more engaged and informed police officers who’ve participated in the mentorship program.”

The write:

Compared with the initiatives taken in other countries, these were truly baby steps, and they were met with mixed responses, with some community groups refusing to cooperate because they perceived the initiatives to be discriminatory and possibly masking surveillance efforts. After dismantling much of the Obama-era Homeland Security CVE architecture, the Trump administration resurrected it in late 2019, replacing the unpopular and often controversial “CVE” lexicon that was perceived as being too-often focused on Muslim communities with a “terrorism and targeted violence prevention” framework that explicitly included white supremacist violence as well as nonideologically motivated violence. In addition, this year the administration rolled out a follow-on Homeland Security grants program to support locally led initiatives, informed by the lessons from the Obama-era grants. These decisions left a glimmer of hope that Homeland Security was on the path to developing the kind of trusting relationship with local partners necessary to allow the department to work together to prevent extremist violence from taking root in their communities.

Yet Homeland Security as an organization remains focused on security, Rosand and Weine write, “and recent departmental involvement in widely condemned immigration and anti-protest measures has probably added to doubts about its concerns for and credibility in local communities.”

Our research and experience shows that the department’s emphasis on security can be counterproductive and that the most promising strategies can be found in models and partnerships led by actors not involved in security. It is time to consider turning the page of the past decade of Homeland Security-focused efforts by ending the targeted violence and terrorism prevention program and committing to new prevention models that offer a better fit with the community-based work required to make progress against the still growing violent extremist threat in the United States.