Comment archive

Wednesday, 3 Sept 2025
Translation: How Securitization of Islam travels from Right-wing to Left-wing Political Parties

Since the war on terror began, Muslim minorities living in Western countries have been increasingly treated as potentially radical individuals in cahoots with Islamist groups, and often as an urgent threat to national security. This process of growing surveillance and stigmatization has contributed shaping an Islamophobic discourse and discriminatory policies.

Monday, 21 Jul 2025
Commemorating the terrorist attack July 22, 2011: a memorial map from below

Every year since 2011, from the middle of July, survivors, the bereaved, and the rest of Norway prepare for yet another commemoration of the July 22 terror attack.

Thursday, 19 Sept 2024
Anti-Globalist Alliances?

The far right and far left have partly overlapping views on issues of global economic cooperation. Why don’t they unite? “We have moved from ‘we the workers’ to ‘we the French,’” said the French sociologist Didier Eribon to Libération recently, to explain the working class’s support for the populist party Rassemblement ...

Monday, 9 Oct 2023
Community Deprivation Drives Far-Right Violence

Using disaggregated data for England, the authors show that community deprivation drives far-right violence. Their research reveals how deprivation fuels it, and how it may be possible to predict where such violence is likely, even when we cannot predict who may be carrying out attacks. They also suggest that efforts to ...

Friday, 23 Jun 2023
Queer Paradoxes after the Pride Terror Attack

Earlier this week, my partner bought some rainbow-coloured yarn. While we queued at the till, a mother in front of us pointed at our yarn and said to her child: Look! Just like you! A small voice addressing an enormous issue. Being queer feels different this year and I’ll explain ...

Monday, 21 Mar 2022
The Taliban, International Law and the Rest of the World

The population of Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian catastrophe. Twenty-three million Afghans, more than half of the population, are starving. The UN warns of a risk that a million Afghan children will die. In this situation, there is no way of avoiding cooperation with those in control of the country, namely ...

Sunday, 16 Jan 2022
When Terrorists Mobilize Law: Reflections on justice and closure after July 22

During January 18-21, the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik will have his request for parole adjudicated by the Telemark District Court over a four-day trial. In 2012, he was sentenced to preventive detention for a term of twenty-one years and a minimum period of ten years for the July 22, ...

Monday, 18 Oct 2021
Book review: Encountering extremism. Theoretical issues and local challenges

by Alice Martini, Kieran Ford and Richard Jackson (Eds) Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2020. 328 pp. ISBN: 978-1-5261-3660-2. What is the difference between terrorism and extremism? The book Encountering extremism. Theoretical issues and local challenges, edited by Alice Martini, Kieran Ford and Richard Jackson, jumps in this debate by charting ...

Wednesday, 14 Jul 2021
Democracy’s Scars: Adorno’s Lecture on Right-Wing Radicalism

The battle against fascism is never over; it must be fought anew by each generation and we must never forget what this ideology stands for. Theodor W. Adorno’s book is a wake-up call, because of its unfortunately continued relevance, writes Katrine Fangen. Liberal democracies are fragile and fascist tendencies will ...

Friday, 9 Jul 2021
Why Did Muslims Become the New Enemy in Norway and Europe?

Anti-Muslim views have become more widespread in Europe over the past 30 years, but it is important to distinguish between criticisms of certain forms of Islamic practice and the belief that Muslims are taking over Europe. People with anti-Islamic views wish to restrict Muslim immigration and Islamic religious practices. In ...

Wednesday, 9 Jun 2021
Are Women the Solution to Violent Extremism?

Women can contribute to preventing and countering violent extremism, but the international community’s understanding of their contributions is lacking. Women are often expected to assume roles as deradicalizing councillors or informants, but depending on context, it may be unsafe and unrealistic to assume that women will take on such roles. ...

Thursday, 2 Apr 2020
COVID-19 in Conflict-Torn Mali

Coronavirus has killed thousands of people, traumatised the global economy, and has huge impacts on people’s everyday life due to government restrictions in an attempt to flatten the curve. But what impact can COVID-19 have when reaching states with weak governing capacity, limited health care services, and with high levels ...

Tuesday, 24 Mar 2020
Book review: From Righteousness to Far Right. An anthropological rethinking of critical security studies.

by Emma Mc Cluskey In her bookFrom Righteousness to Far Right, Emma Mc Cluskey brings an anthropological revision of critical security studies and offers an ethnographic contribution for understanding the securitisation of migration. The book comes as an alternative to the narrow perspective of early schools of critical security studies ...

Thursday, 12 Mar 2020
Gender and Preventing Violent Extremism

“We cannot allow the invisibility of women in the area of peace and security to continue,” stated Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide in her opening of the session on “Gender and Preventing Violent Extremism” in Amman, Jordan. Women are often “invisible” in analyses of violent extremism, whether ...

Wednesday, 9 Nov 2016
Countering Violent Extremism: Hidden Human Rights Costs

This is a guest blog post by a student who attended this years Peace Research course at the International Summer School 2016. This summer we witnessed a wave of terrorist attacks all around the world, from peaceful European cities to historically insecure cities in Middle East. While the increasing number ...

Wednesday, 7 Sept 2016
Are We Nearing an End to Buddhist Extremism in Myanmar?

Ma Ba Tha and similar groups of extremist monks in Myanmar could face resistance after a government official finally rebuked their brand of nationalism. It took just one dismissive comment from the chief minister of Yangon to seemingly deflate Ma Ba Tha. The Buddhist nationalist organisation has become known for ...