Reasons individuals support violent extremism and engage with terrorist organizations has gained increasing attention from policy makers and researchers in recent years. UNDP research in Africa and Asia have highlighted societal and individual factors including education, religion, employment, and a lack of confidence in state security services. While local and regional studies exist, there has not been a global quantitative analysis investigating the most prominent factors associated with supporting violent extremism. Until now.
UNDP has partnered with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) to unpack existing quantitative global evidence. Using data supplied by the World Values Survey 2020, this study focuses on factors at the: (a) individual level (e.g., employment, age, and religion); (b) country level (e.g., role of government and society); and (c) emerging factors not previously examined (e.g., attitudes to domestic violence that may better predict violent extremist beliefs). Come join us the exciting report launch that will discuss the findings and implications for PVE.
See report: When is Conventional Wisdom Wise? Testing the Assumptions Behind Preventing Violent Extremism
