Encountering Extremism offers readers the opportunity to interrogate extremism through a plethora of theoretical perspectives and explore counter-extremism as it has materialised in plural local contexts. Offering a unique, in-depth critical interrogation, this volume seeks to understand and expose the implications of a fundamental problematic: how should scholars and strategists alike understand the contemporary shift from counter-terrorism to counter-extremism?

Representing the first collection of scholarly works encountering this present problem of extremism and counter-extremism, this edited volume addresses the need for a critical examination of both the theoretical and the practical implications of this recent conceptual shift. For this very reason, this book brings together a diverse range of scholars, experts and practitioners to present valuable multidisciplinary analyses of the theory and practicalities of countering extremism. It is in this combination of both theoretical investigation and empirical analyses of local realities that the volume finds its added value, offering a unique contribution to a vital field of academic study.

Introduction: Encountering extremism: a critical examination of theoretical issues and local challenges - Alice Martini, Kieran Ford and Richard Jackson

Part I: What's in a name? Theoretically deconstructing extremism
1 Interrogating the concept of (violent) extremism: a genealogical study of terrorism and counterterrorism discourses - Chin-Kuei Tsui
2 Conceptualising violent extremism: ontological, epistemological and normative issues - Sondre Lindahl
3 Knowledge, power, subject: constituting the extremist/moderate subject - Mariela Cuadro
4 The lone (white) wolf, 'terrorism' and the suspect community - Marie Breen-Smyth
5 The personal is political: feminist critiques of countering violent extremism - Jessica Auchter
6 A peace studies approach to countering extremism: do counter-extremism strategies produce peace? - Kieran Ford
7 What is an educational response to extreme and radical ideas and why does it matter? - Aislinn O'Donnell

Part II: Extremism, countering extremism and preventing extremism: from theory to international and local challenges
8 Legitimising countering extremism at an international level: the role of the United Nations Security Council - Alice Martini
9 International PVE and Tunisia: a local critique of international donors' discourses - Guendalina Simoncini
10 Communication as legitimation in Spanish CVE: bringing lessons from the past - Laura Fernández de Mosteyrín
11 Extremists or patriots? Racialisation of countering violent extremism programming in the United States - Priya Dixit
12 The CVE paradox: inapplicability and necessity in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Tanja Dramac Jiries
13 Drivers or decoys? Women and the narrative of extremist violence in Pakistan - Afiya Shehrbano Zia
14 The mayor of Abuja and the 'Pied Piper' of Maiduguri: extremism and the 'politics of mutual envy' in Nigeria? - Akinyemi Oyawale
Index

Editors

Alice Martini is a Research Associate at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Kieran Ford received his PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Otago

Richard Jackson is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago