What We Do

In the 20th century, the influence of the far-right phenomenon upon public agenda and political systems became glaringly apparent, and its potency has been consistently growing in recent decades. The evolution of the far-right since its previous, twentieth-century iteration has become evident through both structural changes to its organizational composition as well as definitive shifts to the movement’s operational stratagem. The far-right political coalition has mutated from a hierarchical organization with a centralized operational command to a highly decentralized movement typified by “lone wolf” and “copycat” attacks driven by ideological rather than organizational influences. This shift in the movement’s approach to command and control occurred in conjunction with a marked escalation in the force of their terrorist ventures, from a ‘limited’ (soft) violence to ‘comprehensive’ (hard) violence demonstrated through mass casualty attacks mostly perpetrated by Lone Wolf actors.
This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the far-right phenomenon, in order to facilitate the formation of a general typological framework through which to assess threats posed by any current or future far-right affiliated groups.

Article by: Dr. Eitan Azani, Dr. Liram Koblenz-Stenzler, Lorena Atiyas-Lvovsky, Dan Ganor, Arie Ben-Am, Delilah Meshulam

2020 was a good year for radical Islamic terrorist organizations in Africa. While the rest of the world tried to contain and curb the Covid-19 pandemic as well as work frantically toward a vaccine, the former’s activity expanded and claimed the lives of thousands, turned hundreds of thousands into refugees in their own countries and further destabilized governments’ rule in vast regions in the continent. The cycle of violence has expanded to include more countries.

Article by: Dr. Eitan Azani and Dr. David Duchan

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) involves two ICT researchers in a study on  drone threats to metropolitan areas.

Ely Karmon & Uri Ben Yaakov

Article by: Dr. Liram Koblenzt-Stenzler, and Alexander Pack

Far-right actors view this as an opportunity to increase their influence and radicalize individuals. In the past, such radicalization efforts resulted in individual-initiative (“lone wolf”) attacks, such as in Christchurch, New Zealand. Similarly, the attack on the “Tree of Life” Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was perpetrated by an individual-initiative actor radicalized by white supremacists online. Additionally, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) noted that from 2015-2020, there was a 320% increase globally in the number of attacks from members of the far-right.

This article reviews the existing body of literature concerning terrorist leadership targeting and identifies limitations in the prevailing approaches.

As past attempts to gauge the efficacy of decapitation strategies are disputed, this article calls for a new methodology for conducting decapitation research.

Article by: Jacob Finn

This article attempts to demonstrate that not only are CVE and PVE separate frameworks addressing distinct yet overlapping steps of the radicalization process, but that both frameworks are essential elements of a holistic CT action plan.

Article by: Will Clifft

Based on some of the mistakes made by the media community during the 2015 attacks in France and building on the Superior Council on AudioVisual’s (CSA) conclusions of February 12, 2015, this paper aims at suggesting additional guidelines to journalists in order to guide their coverage of terrorist attacks in a productive yet mindful way. 

Article by: Johanna Benhamou

The blast caused on January 29, 2021 by a “very low-intensity improvised device” outside the Israeli Embassy building in New Delhi is considered by Israeli and Indian authorities a terrorist attack, probably by Iran.

The blast caused no injury, no damage to the building and only damage to windshields of several cars parked in the vicinity.

Deputy Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University Seamus Hughes joins Counter-Terrorism Today