Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism – Failing to Prevent

Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism – Failing to Prevent (2012) is a monograph focusing on the problems and limitations of British attempts to “prevent violent extremism” relevant to its time of publishing. Author Paul Thomas “suggests that the Prevent policy approaches, and the wider CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy, have been misguided and ineffective, further alienating British Muslim communities instead of supporting longer-term integration”. He argued in this book that “new, cohesion-based approaches” encouraging greater trust and integration across all communities represent the best defence against terrorism. The book is available from Bloomsbury. Highlights: Read Chapter 4: A suspect community? (pp. 77-95) here. This chapter was referenced in the People’s Review of Prevent. Updates: Paul Thomas is currently an author at CREST, a think tank funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which is part of UK Research and Innovation. The funds for this grant come from the UK intelligence and security agencies and UK Home Office.