How To Prevent Radicalization And Violent Extremism: Lessons From The UK

This is Episode 3 in a 6 part video series analyzing radical right extremists. Here’s episode 1 and episode 2.

Rantt Media has been partnered with the Centre For Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) for about 3 years now. We’ve published over 150 articles from CARR’s network of PhDs, historians, professors, and experts analyzing extremism and combating disinformation. Now, we’re doing a 6 part video series analyzing radical right extremism and discussing how we can tackle this growing threat.

We saw the culmination of the threat of radical right extremism at the January 6 insurrection and in an increasing number of terrorist attacks over the past several years. We take this threat seriously at Rantt and think it’s important for media organizations to feature extremism experts and researchers in their coverage.

In this episode, we have Sean Arbuthnot, Prevent Coordinator in the UK and fellow at CARR. We discussed the UK’s Prevent strategy, the lessons to learn from some of its early mistakes, highlighted specific examples of reformed extremists, and dove into how the US can replicate some of Prevent’s successful tactics. You’ll find time-stamps of what we discussed below:

Intro – 0:07
Sean’s background and what the UK’s Prevent strategy is – 1:03
How to spot vulnerabilities and warning signs of extremism – 3:35
Targeted community approaches to prevent extremism – 7:04
Former extremists’ role in preventing extremism and mentoring – 13:40
A former neo-Nazi’s story of redemption – 17:05
The importance of storytelling in preventing radicalization – 19:06
Examples of extremists’ lives who have turned around – 20:50
Criticisms of Prevent and lessons from post 9/11 era – 24:20
The challenges posed by QAnon and the self-radicalization funnel – 30:38
The mainstreaming of extremism – 36:52
A teenager’s journey out of extremism – 41:38
Counter-extremism at scale/advice for the Biden Admin – 47:47
Final thoughts and what the US can do to prevent extremism and domestic terrorism in the US- 58:32