The question of the quality and impact of counter-extremism work is as old as debate about preventative work itself. From an academic viewpoint quality standards, transparency and evaluation are indispensable necessities in counter-extremism work. In its July 2016 Strategy on Countering Extremism and Advancing Democracy the German federal government formulated the aim of “ensuring the quality and further development of preventative and democracy-advancing measures and structures through continual, critical evaluation”.
Counter-extremism is such a dynamic and complex field that questions are naturally raised about the effectiveness and quality of individual measures. Counter-extremism activity – and hence also the quality of such activity – cannot be a function of a facility’s available resource, the time budget of experts or funding criteria. We must instead focus our attention on developing efficient programmes. We need to identify positive and promising approaches if we are to deploy limited financial and personnel resources effectively. In this sphere of work structurally deficient counter-extremism and deradicalisation projects are not merely a waste of such scarce resources, they also present a considerable security risk. Reliability, efficiency and transparency are the foundations of counterextremism work and must themselves be based on high quality standards.
This handbook draws on the evaluation of comprehensive case studies, interviews with practitioners, reformed extremists and family members of radicalised individuals as well as experience with casework and a close reading of international academic literature on the subject.
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