Violent extremism (VE) generally refers to direct involvement in the creation of extremist violence and support for such acts. Extremist violence is differentiated from other forms of violence by its motivation, i.e. it seeks to achieve ideological, religious, or political goals. In some definitions, it includes other forms of politically motivated violence and support for violence: the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development, for example, defines violent extremism as "promoting views which foment and incite violence in furtherance of particular beliefs, and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence”

Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) is a broad term to describe activities that seek to prevent or mitigate violent extremism through non-coercive measures to counteract the 'drivers' or 'factors' which cause violent extremist threats. PVE is widely understood to involve, for instance, community debates on sensitive topics, media messaging, interfaith dialogues, orientation of state governance and security actors, and a variety of initiatives with individuals deemed to be at risk' of joining or being attracted to VE groups. PVE also overlaps with efforts to prevent violence and conflict by supporting development, strengthening institutions, and developing appropriate policy frameworks.

What is Radicalisation and Recruitment?

Radicalisation is also a contested term with various definitions. It is commonly understood as the social and psychological process of incrementally experienced commitment to extremist ideologies. This is usually a non-linear, complex and idiosyncratic transition affecting different people in different ways and does not necessarily involve a journey towards the use of violence. Instead, radicalisation implies a process where an individual's beliefs move from being relatively mainstream to seeking a drastic change in society, which may or may not be achieved through violence. For this reason, the term is sometimes modified as 'violent radicalisation' or 'radicalisation leading to violent extremism'.

Recruitment is often used in conjunction with radicalisation. However, the two should not be used interchangeably. Recruitment implies the presence of an external influence drawing or forcing individuals into a violent extremist group, while the term radicalisation has been criticized for assuming that the individual develops extreme views before searching out terrorist groups, rather than vice versa. In fact, research shows that individuals join violent extremist groups and movements for many different, often non-ideological, reasons and can be retrospectively indoctrinated through mechanisms such as 'group identity' and 'group shift'. These mechanisms are common to all of us, but can be particularly salient in conflict environments, where individuals may initially align themselves with a violent extremist group due to pragmatic, rational or opportunistic considerations, and then adopt the group's norms and values.

What is Resilience and Vulnerability?

Resilience is another problematic term which means different things in different contexts. In P/CVE it usually refers to a wide range of factors (ideas, institutions, trends, and values) that enable individuals and/or communities to resist or prevent violence, as well as recover or 'bounce back' from, the specific contributory dynamics feeding violent extremism.

Vulnerability in P/CVE means susceptibility to radicalisation or recruitment to VE/terrorism. It assumes that individuals exposed to factors and characteristics associated with radicalisation and recruitment are more likely to join VE groups. The term 'vulnerability' is also used interchangeably and synonymously with the term 'at-risk'.