ICYMI: Central Eastern Europeans and their Lack of Pathways to Global Jihad

(New York, N.Y.) – On Friday, September 20, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and Bratislava-based think tank GLOBSEC released its newest collaborative report, (Few) Jihadis Without Jihad? Central Eastern Europeans And Their Lack Of Pathways To Global Jihad. The public event featured a discussion with GLOBSEC National Security Programme Director Dr. Kacper Rekawek and CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, moderated by Vice News National Security Correspondent Ben Makuch.

On the same day, Drs. Rekawek and Schindler previewed upcoming CEP research, tentatively titled, Ukraine Conflict: Motor for Right-Wing Extremism Around the Globe. The research builds upon CEP’s work on far-right extremism in Europe and examines the ramifications of thousands of radical and extremist far-right supporters who have gained combat experience fighting in Ukraine, on both sides of the conflict, and what that means for the future of the far-right movement in Europe.

In (Few) Jihadis Without Jihad? Central Eastern Europeans And Their Lack Of Pathways To Global Jihad, researchers examined the pathways of aspiring jihadis in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary and found that few succeeded in their quest to travel to Syria and Iraq. Despite their relative proximity to Western European countries that sent thousands of men and women to fight for ISIS, the study found that a lack of a local jihadi infrastructure of radical mosques, jihadi veterans, mentoring, family support, and funding forced these individuals to improvise or act in isolation. The report highlights the importance of disrupting connections between radicalized individuals in Central Europe with existing networks in Western Europe and gives a range of recommendations on how the emergence of new radical and extremist Islamist networks could be prevented.

Earlier this year, in April 2019, CEP and GLOBSEC released the report, The Input: Pathways To Jihad, probing the phenomenon of the nexus of crime and terror. The report focuses on 310 cases of individuals in 11 European countries arrested for terrorism offenses, expelled for alleged terrorist connections, or who died while staging terrorist attacks in 2015, the peak year of European jihadism. The report identified eight separate pathways that these individuals took to join radical and extremist Islamist terror organizations. Among these were prison as a key hub of jihadi recruitment, the role of the family in the radicalization progress, and the inflammatory character of certain places of worship as recruitment hubs.

That study was followed closely by The Input: Pathways To Jihad, vol. 2, which took a closer look at the pathways taken to global radical and extremist jihad by 56 individuals from six countries within the larger dataset of the first report, who were convicted of the most serious terrorist offences. Using the eight separate pathways developed in the first report, this update report analyzed the elements that contribute to the development of individuals into violent terrorists.

To watch a short presentation of CEP’s upcoming research project with Dr. Rekawek on far-right supporters who fought in Ukraine, please click here.

To read the report, (Few) Jihadis Without Jihad? Central Europeans And Their Lack Of Pathways To Global Jihad, please click here.

To read the report, The Input: Pathways To Jihad, please click here.

To read the report, The Input: Pathways To Jihad, vol. 2, please click here.