Strategic Recommendations- Synopsis
The first recommendation was to broaden the focus to include nonviolent extremisms. It recognized that extremism exists on a scope that goes beyond violent actions and addresses the issues that fueled it. The second recommendation advocated for promoting reform, prosperity, and democracy. It suggested that the president should consider investing in socioeconomic development in Arab countries to soothe the grievances and create a society that was less prone to radicalization. Third was empowering moderate Muslim voices by supporting their voices to make them counter extremist stories within their communities (The Washington Institute, 2009). The task force made a fourth recommendation focused on having a focus to address the local grievances to resolve issues such as political repressions and inequality, which fuels radicalization. The fifth recommendation was on decoupling democracy from counterterrorism, where the president should consider not associating the democracy-promoting efforts with efforts to prevent distrust and backlash among the target populations.
The sixth recommendation was to prioritize economic reform and press for political reform to include all societies in resisting extremism. Next, the president should consider tying the U.S. assistance to efforts fighting corruption to assist the Arab countries in fighting corruption, which deters extremist narratives (The Washington Institute, 2009). The eighth recommendation was to challenge the recruitment tactics used at the grassroots levels by offering supportive systems. Increasing democratization support will empower marginalized groups and make them not support extremist ideologies. The tenth recommendation concerns promoting free media, which will play an essential role in countering all the propaganda about extremists. Aligning public diplomacy with allies is the eleventh recommendation, where having regional partners will improve the effectiveness of countering extremist narratives. The twelfth recommendation was to adopt an inclusive approach, where the president should consider expanding outreach efforts beyond the interests of building trust.
The task force also recommended that the president have a network with opinion leaders, specifically influential leaders who are well-positioned to curb extremist ideologies and enhance moderation and tolerance. Recommendation number fourteen was amplifying diverse voices, such as religious voices, to offer responses to extremist narratives. There would be a need for political dialogues with various stakeholders to solve the underlying issues and collaborate towards fostering collaboration in countering extremism. The sixteenth provides the real assessments of threats to reflect the ideological bankruptcy to undermine their appeal. The task force also advocated that the president exploit internal divisions by identifying the credible voices within the extremist movements to weaken their union and effectiveness (The Washington Institute, 2009). A language that is not confrontational should also be used to challenge their narratives without inadvertently validating their grievances. The nineteenth was on countering extremists online by disrupting their propaganda via the Internet. The twentieth is on the coordination of counter-radicalization efforts to deter the duplication of efforts. Establishing a counter-radicalization forum to share best practices among civil society and government agencies will assist in countering radicalization efforts. Enhancing domestic efforts would ensure respect for civil freedom and human rights. The task force recommended that the president consider learning from the international best practices to get insight into improving domestic approaches. The last recommendation was to expand Muslim outreach, to engage more with Muslims to build much trust with them, and to empower them to counter extremism.
Comparison of the Three Recommendations with the Deradicalization Ideas
The recommendation on empowering Muslim voices aligns with the deradicalization idea of engaging with influencers and respected public figures within a community, such as religious leaders and community leaders, to offer alternative viewpoints about the extremists (Silke, 2018). By advocating for the empowerment of Muslim voices, the task force acknowledges the need for leveraging community networks to combat radicalization.
The recommendation of challenging the extremists in cyberspace matches the emphasis on combating radicalization in the digital age. Most of the extremist groups use online platforms to recruit new members and share their ideologies. Therefore, monitoring such online activities and disrupting their messaging strategies and their means of content dissemination are among the major components of DE radicalization within the Internet.
The task force’s recommendation for coordinating the counter-radicalization programs resonates with the importance of partnership and collaboration in all the deradicalization efforts. Any successful deradicalization program usually involves a lot of multi-agency collaborations, such as mental health professionals, law enforcers, and community organizations (Silke, 2018). Therefore, such a holistic approach is well-positioned to address all factors surrounding radicalization and enhance the effectiveness of deradicalization interventions.
The Progress Made in the World
One major progress is increased awareness and collaboration concerning the threats of radical extremism. The awareness has enhanced international coordination and cooperation among governments worldwide, multilateral institutions, and civil society organizations. It led to the formation of platforms such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum, which has 30 countries as its founding members and focuses on reducing the vulnerability of people throughout the world. The platform has promoted the sharing of best practices for countering extremism. A second progress is that a lot of countries have reinforced their counterterrorism laws as an effort towards preventing radicalization. The laws have been crafted so that people in these extremist groups can be prosecuted to act as an example to others. Lastly, there have also been a lot of efforts from NGOs, governments, and tech companies to share counter-narratives about extremist ideologies. Tech companies have played an essential role in leveraging digital platforms to share this counter-narrative information mostly with the affected communities.
However, regardless of such progress, there has been a challenge of persistent extremist threats from a global scale. There has been the rise of new extremist groups that have devised new tactics for recruiting members and executing their plans. There are increased cases of lone wolf attacks, which have resulted in the assassination of various political leaders, thus presenting ongoing challenges to traditional counterterrorism strategies.
References
Silke, A. (2018). Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, (1st Ed.). London: Routledge, CRC Press. ISBN: 9780367580520
The Washington Institute. (2009, March). Task force on confronting the ideology of radical extremism: Rewriting the Narrative. An integrated strategy for Counterradicalization.
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