Call for participants: RAN Practitioners training webinar - ‘Trends and developments in narratives and recruitment techniques online’, 27 March 2024

27 March 2024, 10:00 – 11:35 CET

This webinar will be held in English and will take place via Webex Events.

We are pleased to invite you to the RAN Practitioners webinar on ‘Trends and developments in narratives and recruitment techniques online’ that will take place on 27 March 2024 from 10.00 to 11:35 (CET).

Aim and background

Violent extremist organisations are notoriously opportunistic and seek to assert identity, command attention, and establish a new world order during moments of international crisis. Across Europe this is evident in two current trends, present in their respective extremisms.

The key players in the Islamist extremism landscape have changed. As the prominence of ISIS and Al-Qaeda has diminished, other regional organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah have learnt from the transnational jihadist movements and adapted their narrative and recruitment techniques, increasing their global appeal.

Recruitment, both online and offline, by these groups has intensified following the Israel/Hamas conflict. Islamist extremists are exploiting normalised political and societal grievances, and high levels of misinformation and disinformation in relation to this conflict, to disrupt local democracies and recruit individuals for violent extremist activities, with significant impact across Europe.

Far-right extremist groups across Europe have sought to capitalise on the economic downturn. In addition, the normalisation of anti-immigration sentiments and the rise of populist right-wing movements have shifted the window of what is acceptable. Far-right extremists have taken advantage of this and sought to increase support for ‘Islam vs the West’ paradigms, victimisation narratives, anti-establishment sentiments, and ultimately justification of violence.

Related to these phenomena, this webinar seeks to answer the following questions: to what extent will these normalising narrative trends lead to the development of online extremist recruitment techniques? And how can they be countered while preserving space for legitimate and democratic debate?

Building on lessons from previous RAN meetings and events, this webinar aims to inform practitioners about current extremist trends and the ways in which violent extremist organisations and individuals across the ideological spectrum are exploiting current affairs and modifying their recruitment techniques to mobilise support for their worldviews. It aims to consider good practices to counter these narrative trends and recruitment tactics, and signpost resources for further support.

Set-up

In this webinar, you will hear from three experts who will share their insights on the topics discussed above. The first presentation will be from professor Peter Neumann from ICSR, who will discuss the overarching trends and developments regarding the normalisation of extremist narratives. Then, another expert (tbc) will delve into the recruitment trends in Islamist extremism, followed by Alexander Ritzmann from the Counter-Extremism Project, who will discuss developments and narratives in far-right extremism.

Following the presentations, the three speakers will participate in a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session.

Please note that this webinar is primarily aimed at dissemination and will only allow for limited interaction between attendees and speakers. Attendees will be given the opportunity to pose questions via the Q&A function and/or Mentimeter during the event. All questions will be collected, and selected questions will be put to the speakers by the moderators.

Practical

• Given the sensitivity of the topic, this will be a closed webinar with limited access. Recordings will be used to inform policy and future RAN activities but will not be published. 
• If you would like to attend the webinar, please register via this link. The link will redirect you to a Webex page with a ‘register’ button. Please click on this button and sign up with your email address. Be sure to use the same email address that you will use to log into the event.
• If your registration is accepted, you will be admitted to the event by RAN Staff. You will receive an automated confirmation message and a registration link from Webex which will lead you to the webinar environment. If you do not receive an email, please check your spam inbox.

If you have any questions related to this webinar, please feel free to reach out to m [dot] shahhoudradaradvies [dot] nl (Malaz Shahhoud) or jonathan [dot] russellViolence-prevention-network [dot] de (Jonathan Russell).