Failed and friendless: The UK's 'preventing violent extremism' programme

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122 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article suggests that Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE), the government's 'hearts and minds' response to the threat of domestic Islamist terrorism within the wider CONTEST strategy, has been exposed as both failed and friendless by growing political and academic scrutiny. PVE's monocultural focus on Muslims is in stark contradiction to the overriding policy goal of community cohesion, while its implementation has provoked accusations both of surveillance and of engineering 'value changes' within Muslim communities. Local conflicts relating to the operationalisation of PVE result from political disagreement over the balance between community engagement and policing within the Labour government, and these problems leave the future of this key anti-terrorism policy area unclear.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)442-458
Number of pages17
JournalBritish Journal of Politics and International Relations
Volume12
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2010

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