This article will explore how to maximise the potential for positive peace impacts of different approaches to preventing violent extremism by applying principles from the peacebuilding field and a systems perspective. The article does not focus on the debate whether P/CVE initiatives should exist or not. Neither does it engage more deeply with the question of what role interreligious aspects play in this area. Rather, it takes a practical approach, based on the premise that political extremism and rapidly changing forms of violence have been a concern in the peacebuilding field for a long time (Steenkamp 2014)), and that we need to understand the phenomenon of ‘violent extremism’ alongside other forms of violence. Violent extremism has received renewed attention in recent years, often with a focus on extremist groups operating in the name of Islam, and in this guise often lacks the ‘sincere engagement’ of religion and its identity components that Abu-Nimer talks about, thereby steering close to the unhelpful ‘Islamisation of CVE/PVE’ he critically highlights.

Anita Ernstorfer: Effective Approaches to Preventing Violent Extremism: A Peacebuilding Systems Perspective. A comment by our advisory board member in Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 13, 2018. link >