ABSTRACT
Radicalisation and violent extremism are global challenges. Although the allure of the Islamic State weakened when the latter faced battlefield defeats in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State has gained recruits in other places, and racist and hate groups have increased their activities in the West (Kennedy, 2014; Koehler, 2016; Pestano, 2016). There are no signs of these challenges diminishing in the future; rather the contrary. The rise of the Islamic State saw between 27,000 and 31,000 fighters travelling to Syria and Iraq, many of whom returned to their home countries after the battlefield defeats suffered by the Islamic State after 2014. The Islamic State has also mobilised sympathisers around the world (Khalil and Shanahan, 2016). There are also numerous reports on increasing right-wing violence in many larger countries, such as the United States (Jones, 2018).
