• Us vs. Them: Harming the “Outgroup” Linked to Elevated Activity in the Brain's Reward Circuitry

    Humans tend to form groups, which often find themselves in conflict with rival groups. But why do people show such a ready tendency to harm people in opposing groups? A new study used brain imaging to explain why humans are aggressive toward rival groups.

  • Siege Culture and Accelerationism in the U.K.

    Siege Culture, also referred to as accelerationism, has been on the rise in the U.K. and elsewhere since 2016. Both Siege Culture and accelerationism refer to a violent strategy in which terrorism is used to hasten societal collapse by provoking reactions from authorities and exacerbating existing social tensions.

  • Hate Sites: Using the Broader Abortion Argument to Spread Racism, Extremism

    Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists are using the debate around women’s reproductive rights to promote racist and extremist agendas.

  • U.K. Extremists Sentenced to More Than 30 Years Imprisonment

    A Sheffield, U.K., court sentenced four extremists who advocated racist violence and the manufacture and possession of weapons to more than 30 years imprisonment.

  • Firearms: Weapons of Choice for Domestic Extremists

    Every year, extremists overwhelmingly use guns to carry out their deadly attacks. In any given year, more people are killed by extremists who use firearms than those who choose any other weapon. Over the past decade, shootings accounted for 75 percent of the deaths at the hands of extremists.

  • Obsessive Passion and Social Alienation Linked to Support for Political Violence

    What underlies violent extremism – that is, support for violence to achieve political, ideological or social objectives — and what drives an individual to exhibit these behaviors in which political violence is a desirable option?

  • Taliban Faces Growing Armed Resistance Across Afghanistan

    Ten months into their extremist theocratic rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban are facing growing resistance in different parts of the country. Contrary to the Taliban’s claim that an atmosphere of calm and security prevails in Afghanistan, there has been growing resistance to their rule, led by the National Resistance Front (NRF), headed by Ahmad Massoud—the son of the legendary Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

  • Choking Local Funding Prevents Terrorism

    New research by supports the use of financial counterterrorism. Terrorists depend on local funding availability, as they struggle to move money around, and we should limit their ability to access financing.

  • Can Reforming Social Media Save American Democracy?

    When social media exploded in the mid-2000s, retweeting, sharing and liking posts appeared to give average citizens the power to share their opinions far and wide. The problem, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is that online social networks didn’t really end up giving everyone the voice that many thought it would. “It empowered four groups who take advantage of the viral dynamics of social media. That is the far right, the far left, trolls and Russian intelligence,” he says.

  • U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designating two key supporters of the ethnically motivated violent extremist group known as the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM). RIM was previously designated by the U.S. Department of State as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization on April 7, 2020 for having provided training for acts of terrorism.

  • Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State Networks on Facebook 

    Researchers found that the network of support on social media for al-Shabaab and Islamic State extended across several platforms, including decentralized messaging applications such as Element and RocketChat, and encrypted messaging platforms such as Telegram, as well as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. 

  • Fearing Iranian Attacks, Israel Urges Israeli Travelers in Turkey to Return Home

    The stealthy war between Israel and Iran is escalating. In late May, Israeli intelligence uncovered a secret Iranian plot to kill and kidnap Israeli tourists in Turkey, a favorite tourist destination for Israelis. The Turkish authorities were alerted, and the Iranian agents were captured. A few days later, a colonel in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was killed in broad daylight in the middle of Teheran. The colonel’s unit was responsible for planning and carrying out attacks on Israelis abroad.

  • Extremist Planning Bioweapons Attacks to Start a Racial War in South Africa Convicted

    South African court convicts the leader of an extremist group planning to use bioweapons to bring about, in his words, “black genocide” as part of a broader effort to re-establish the country’s apartheid regime.

  • Converging Trends Increase Threats of Violence: DHS

    DHS warns the chances for increased violence or terror attacks are likely to increase over the next six months – the result of a volatile convergence of pervasive disinformation, conspiracy theories, and several high-profile events like the anticipated Supreme Court decision on abortion and the country’s mid-term elections.

  • German Police Failed in Far-Right Hanau Killings: Critics

    Police have been accused of failing to keep tabs on a racist killer during one of Germany’s worst-ever far-right shootings. Police say they had to proceed cautiously.