Orlando and South Carolinavs Nice and Syria Differing Perceptions of Violent Extremisism at Home and Abroad
Summer of Peace 2016 > International Peacebuilding & Global Citizenship > Countering Violent Extremism
Broadcast on August 10, 2016
With Mary Hope Schwoebel
US security agencies (law enforcement and defense) are concerned with three types of violent extremism – US-based right wing violent extremists, US citizens who become Islamist violent extremists (some of whom join groups overseas), and Islamist violent extremists in developing countries that have large or majority Muslim populations. This discussion will focus the commonalities, differences, and interactions and intersections between these three different types of violent extremism and the contexts in which they have emerged. It will focus on how peacebuilding theories and practices can contribute to our understanding of and efforts to prevent violent extremism internationally and domestically, with a particular focus on the latter.
- Identify the common drivers of right wing violent extremist movements in the United States and Islamist violent extremist movements abroad
- Understand the ways that conceptions of gender contribute to right wing violent extremist movements in the United States and Islamist violent extremist movements abroad
- Explore peacebuilding approaches to address the drivers of violent extremist movements in the United States
Mary Hope Schwoebel
Assistant Professor, Department of Conflict Resolution Studies, Nova Southeastern University and Interim Director, B.S. in Sociology and M.S. in Conflict Resolution Studies
Dr. Mary Hope Schwoebel’s areas of expertize include preventing and countering violent extremism, peacebuilding and statebuilding, governance and development. Dr. Schwoebel has 30 years experience working in international affairs, conducting research, teaching, training, and facilitating dialogues in South America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. She spend 12 years working and living in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, where she managed development, governance and humanitarian assistance programs for UNICEF, USAID, Catholic Relief Services and Peace Corps. In Washington, she has worked as a Senior Program Officer at the United States Institute of Peace and at InterAction. She has published on a wide variety of topics including book chapters, op-eds, policy papers, and journal articles. Most recently she has conducted research for USAID on the transborder aspects of violent extremism in the Horn of Africa and on gender and violent extremism in East and West Africa. She is currently Guest Editor of a special issue of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development entitled ‘Peacebuilding Approaches to Preventing and Transforming Violent Extremism’.
