This week Albany attended the OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Expert Conference with the focus on Countering the Incitement and Recruitment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF). The conference facilitated an exchange of good practice and lessons learned with the aim of contributing to further high-level discussions at the UN General Assembly this September.
With the alarming number of individuals who travel abroad for the purpose of joining the Islamic State and the increase on the number of attacks in the West as seen in the recent tragic events in Tunisia, France and Kuwait its evidently clear that ISIL have succeeded in the spread of their violent extremist views and exploiting the religious beliefs and tenets as part of the broader narratives built around real or perceived grievances. Thus, there is a greater need for a multi-faceted approach coupled with synchronised solutions and strategies to effectively counter terrorism.
Prevention is key to countering violent extremism and through empowering young people and engaging with individuals at risk of radicalisation is crucial to countering the phenomena. “Empowering youth through education and training in media literacy and critical thinking helps to prevent the seeds of intolerance, radicalization and extremism from taking root” reinforced Aleksandar Nikolić, State Secretary of Serbia’s Ministry of Interior.
The conference reaffirmed the key role played by strategic messaging and communications strategies to counter violent extremist narratives, and explored methods of maximising impact. The importance of developing video imagery, engaging artists, filmmakers and other creatives, and the use of credible voices both online and offline are all essential factors in countering extremism and radicalisation. Although the counter-narrative approach has been widely adopted by both governments and civil society there are growing concerns that efforts thus far has been ineffective. Nonetheless there is a vacuum of information in the social media space and unless we occupy the space ISIS will win the battle of the narratives.
For a look at the conference programme please view here.
___________________________________________________________________
Fatma Ahmed is an Associate at Albany Associates.
