Week in Review for Violent Extremism and Terrorism Analysis: 2023-02-27
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Happy Monday everyone, here is your recap for the week of February 27, 2023. Feel free to send my way recommendations for next week. 1) ICSR launches the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents. ICSR launched a database called the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and law enforcement. This has long been in the making and represents an important dimension of research into violent extremism and terrorism, which is ease of access to primary sources of information for researchers and practitioners. Primary sources are an important tool to leverage; however access to some of these materials are not easily available to researchers and practitioners either due to the nature of the actors we research, the ecosystems they are active, or even lack of knowledge of groups/spaces. READ offers a way for researcher and practitioners to access both widely known documents related to violent extremism and terrorism, as well as niche documents that have been curated by the team of experts at ICSR, without having to directly engage in violent extremist milieus. Further, there are several important actors in the field that need access to primary sources to accomplish their work, such as frontline prevention practitioners, or policy analysts that might not be able to access these documents or even know they exist. Our field is known for individuals and organizations who hoard data and do not share it, at times for legitimate reasons, but for others for selfish ones. I have always been an advocate for sharing data and resources in our field and READ is a step in that direction. This is also an effort that relied and will continue to rely on crowdsourcing, we all have our areas of expertise and our niche actors and milieus we focus on. Databases like these are an important source of information to understand both past and emerging trends. I also want to highlight that not everyone is trained or equipped (psychologically or emotionally) to go into the spaces where this material is found. This should not prevent them from having the tools they need to do their research. Researchers and practitioners should not have to choose between their mental health or safety and security to get access to primary data and I hope READ accomplishes this.
Week in Review for Violent Extremism and Terrorism Analysis: 2023-02-27
Week in Review for Violent Extremism and…
Week in Review for Violent Extremism and Terrorism Analysis: 2023-02-27
Happy Monday everyone, here is your recap for the week of February 27, 2023. Feel free to send my way recommendations for next week. 1) ICSR launches the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents. ICSR launched a database called the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and law enforcement. This has long been in the making and represents an important dimension of research into violent extremism and terrorism, which is ease of access to primary sources of information for researchers and practitioners. Primary sources are an important tool to leverage; however access to some of these materials are not easily available to researchers and practitioners either due to the nature of the actors we research, the ecosystems they are active, or even lack of knowledge of groups/spaces. READ offers a way for researcher and practitioners to access both widely known documents related to violent extremism and terrorism, as well as niche documents that have been curated by the team of experts at ICSR, without having to directly engage in violent extremist milieus. Further, there are several important actors in the field that need access to primary sources to accomplish their work, such as frontline prevention practitioners, or policy analysts that might not be able to access these documents or even know they exist. Our field is known for individuals and organizations who hoard data and do not share it, at times for legitimate reasons, but for others for selfish ones. I have always been an advocate for sharing data and resources in our field and READ is a step in that direction. This is also an effort that relied and will continue to rely on crowdsourcing, we all have our areas of expertise and our niche actors and milieus we focus on. Databases like these are an important source of information to understand both past and emerging trends. I also want to highlight that not everyone is trained or equipped (psychologically or emotionally) to go into the spaces where this material is found. This should not prevent them from having the tools they need to do their research. Researchers and practitioners should not have to choose between their mental health or safety and security to get access to primary data and I hope READ accomplishes this.