TERRORISM PREVENTION VIA RADICALISATION COUNTER-NARRATIVE

Trivalent Summary Report

The project is funded by the European Unionunder Horizon 2020,

under grant agreement n° 740934

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PRESENTATION

TRIVALENT is a large ‘family’ of 21 members, with a rather mixed composition. There are professional, academic and expert partners. The majority of members are law enforcement agencies. Eleven state police, plus local police forces, from Albany, Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Poland; Portugal, Spain. This is an important and qualifying feature. In addition, there are six academic partners: five from four EU countries, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the UK, and one from a non-EU country, Israel; plus four expert partners with multidisciplinary expertise in the field of security and ICT, from three EU countries, France, Italy, Spain.

To give an overall idea of TRIVALENT activities and efforts in terms of its main goals and vision, it is possible here to touch upon some general points.There is no single way in which people are attracted by violent extremism. There is not even one way to contrast and prevent this phenomenon from happening and spreading in our complex, connected and increasingly conflictual societies.In the context of EU countries facing the challenge of home-grown terrorism, TRIVALENT aimed to offer an in-depth analysis of radicalisation leading to violent extremism in view of its prevention.Essentially, TRIVALENT approach to prevention can be thus summarised:

a. the first goal is to test the feasibility of IT early detection tools;

b. the second one is to develop new communication strategies;

c. the third one is to design community-oriented security approach aimed to endow frontline operators with more apt skills and tools, while empowering civil society actors at large.

On this background, TRIVALENT project aimed at contributing to a holistic view on terror challenges, whose focus is a model assessment of the radicalisation process coupled with a three-layers prevention strategy – Predict to Prevent; Communicate to Prevent; Good Policing & Community Engagement to Prevent – TRIVALENT Trilogy (TT).The idea of prevention is at the core of a paradigm shift from a more conventional securitarian approach towards a more suitable communitarian approach, which characterises TRIVALENT rationale, implying:

a. predictive means and technologies based on joining social science theories and definitions with computational models, as regards the feasibility of IT early warning tools capable to forecast possible risk scenarios represented by the influence of violent extremist contents online (social media) and offline;

b. communicative strategies focused on narrative model formats aimed to empowering prevention awareness and targeted for specific contexts and publics;

c. community-oriented policing, based on partnership, trust building and problem solving, to be implemented through IT communication tools, new skills guidelines and training-the-trainers programmes for LEAs and other frontline operators, with an aim to engage civil society and community actors.

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Looking a bit closer at these goals, one may observe that each of them carries some caveats.Indeed, when considering early detection IT tools, one should also be aware of the methodological and conceptual difficulty of distinguishing between radicalisation and violent radicalisation, and moreover of identifying the so-called “markers” of extremism due to potential encroachments on free speech and the fact that there is no consensus on how to predict people path to violent extremism.

Again, when considering communication strategies and narrative formats in which to frame and manage potentially highly conflictual polarisation issues which frequently characterise the radicalisation process, one should be aware of the risk related to so-called counter/alternative narratives, considering the variety of contexts, audiences and the diversity of cultures involved, whereby they can become or be perceived on their turn as forms of propaganda-like narratives, conducive to polarisation counter-effects or to stigmatisation and emphatic generalisation of the diversity factor (e.g., as in the case of “Islamic extremism”).Lastly, when considering community-oriented policing based on community partnership, trust building and problem solving, one should also be aware of clarifying the roles and responsibilities, on one side, of law enforcement agencies (and public authorities in general), and civil society actors and organisations, on the other side, in order to achieve improved cross-sector coordination and implementation.Most synthetically, TRIVALENT project has developed its activities, well aware of such caveats, from both a scientific as well as ethics and data protection viewpoints, focusing on the idea of prevention based on balancing a securitarian with a communitarian approach.

That said, and again in a most synthetic way, TRIVALENT holistic approach on prevention brings out the following question: how to understand this security balancing-factor, in terms of a community-oriented approach to prevention?It suffices here to recall three main assumptions.

a. Basically, the reasoning underlying the communitarian approach to prevention makes it a turning point in prevention policies, strategies and tools.

b. From the viewpoint of the responses to the issues posed by violent extremism, regardless of its definition, what matters is the way in which such issues are and should be looked at.

c. As regards prevention, violent extremism is to be understood as a social as well as a security issue.

To sum up, given the slippery nature and uncertain meaning of expressions such as “radicalisation”, “violent extremism” and even “terrorism”, not by chance evidenced by the lack of consensus on an official international definition, the securitarian approach, being closely connected with law enforcement related to detecting and sanctioning committed or attempted crimes, it becomes more problematic when applied to prevent crimes or the possibility of them occurring. Not least because of the fact that law enforcement mechanisms need, to be get in motion, crimes already committed or attempted. Moreover, an authentic approach to prevention should take into account a variety of factors and conditions, including the social nature of the issues connected with the spreading of radicalisation, especially in certain environs and in relation to so-called “vulnerable” people.

Furthermore, the importance of detecting and countering the early signals of violent extremism, though serving to prevent at least the worst manifestations for a while, are not enough to prevent other possible occurrences. To this end, a deeper and more durable bottom-up action is needed that engages communities, i.e. through a community partnership built on mutual respect, trust-building and problem-solving attitudes and skills.Therefore, greater attention to the fact that radicalisation and extremism beyond posing security issues also reflect social issues, it is at the basis of what we called the “paradigm shift” that TRIVALENT project activities put forward towards a more suitable communitarian approach to prevention, involving communities and civil society actors/stakeholders.

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A prospective conclusion can be thus summarised.

The search for an innovative policy approach in the field of preventing/countering violent extremism with the aim to put in place preventive measures seeking to address the drivers and the root causes of radicalisation, posits also the question: whether, in today’s world, a counter-terrorism approach entrusted only or predominantly to officials and professionals in security (and intelligence alike), it needs to be supported and completed with measures including new technologies, communication strategies and, generally speaking, means of empowering the role of civil society and communities, especially at local and territorial level.

In other words, security – strictly understood as the sole prerogative of professionals in law enforcement – needs to be supported and completed with tools, skills and people committed to working in the “art” of prevention, so to speak, based on early detection/ predictive tools, suitable narrative formats, and community partnership aimed to trust building and problem solving at the grass-root level.

TRIVALENT ambition is to provide a toolbox, made up of proposals, solutions and operational means, although yet to be refined, in order to shape this art of prevention, intended precisely as a practice that evolves and progresses, also through mistakes (as any practice worth of its name), but always having clear, together with the objective, the complex and articulated nature of the phenomenon and the variety of answers necessary to face it.

To this regard TRIVALENT Trilogy (TT) tells about that:

• a good prevention practice which means in turn good practices for security, it must be endowed and supported with a combined variety of tools, strategies, skills and operational means, in a multiagency approach, involving a plurality of actors.

To repeat it once again, TT is proposing to uphold such prevention practice, by:

• innovative technological analytics tools;

• more fit and effective forms of communication aimed to increasing the degree of social resilience, especially in the case of the most vulnerable environments and groups of people: such as minorities, people living in situations of marginalization and in conditions of hardship, young people, users of social platforms, detainees;

• new and updated professional (soft-)skills and knowledge on the side of LEAs;

• models and practices of collaboration with civil society designed to build and strengthen bases of trust that, within a context of clear distinction of the respective roles, will allow joint efforts and a shared commitment, both useful for the purpose of enhancing awareness and attention to situations and phenomena that can lead to extremist violence, in particular at local and territorial level, with regard to the involvement of non-governmental organizations, voluntary associations, communities and representative groups, capable of giving voice to situations of malaise and social degradation, discrimination and hardship, in order to activate mechanisms of dialogue, consultation and participation.

Indeed, radicalisation leading to violent extremism, however complex (multidimensional and multifactorial) be the phenomenon in its multifarious and intertwined causes and drivers, presents behavioural signals and symptoms (languages, postures, views) of socially recognisable relevance, with respect to which if – and to the extent to which – it is possible to resort to early detection (predictive) tools and risk-reduction measures, finalised to counter this phenomenon by way of fitting narrative formats of communication and cooperation with and between law enforcement agencies and communities, it should be also possible, nay, necessary to provide support for problem solving through civil society engagement, on the side of all the actors involved.

This can be summarised with one image, that one fixed on TRIVALENT logo.

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Where the twelve golden stars (symbol of the European Union) are placed around a shield (symbol of security) with the hemicycle of a parliamentary assembly in the centre, more precisely the European Parliament (symbol of democracy and therefore of its fundamental civic and social values).

The message it represents is: in our societies ever more complex, connected and conflictual, security, yet obtained through advanced technologies and adequate professional skills by law enforcement agencies, it must nevertheless be maintained, strengthened and guaranteed with the shield of shared values (human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and respect for human rights, including minority rights), at the basis of common efforts for shared objectives of social cohesion and civil coexistence.

For all the above, one final remark cannot be avoided to be made. When we started working on the project three years ago, we had work packages, tasks and milestones in mind. And we have completed these work packages, activities and achieved these goals: one after the other, and step by step, up to this point when the whole of the work accomplished is before us.It is not for us, of course, to say whether it was all done well, and of course there could be something that should have been done better. But it is up to us to say that we did it with a real feeling of joint commitment. In the end, we can be however content to believe that our contribution is there: made available for further research that will benefit from the results of our working together – including, not only TRIVALENT partners, but also those who in various capacities at the occasion of meetings or via remote contacts, contributed and participated in the project activities, wishing to thank them all!

Luigi MocciaTRIVALENT Project Coordinator President European Centre of Excellence Altiero Spinelli, University Roma Tre

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TRIVALENT STRUCTURE:WPS OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

TRIVALENT project is articulated in a series of work packages (WPs) concerning research topics, their analysis in terms of resulting issues and proposed solutions, culminating in a testing and validation process of such solutions, in particular for application by LEAs.The structure backbone of the project is composed of the following fields of investigation and corresponding WPs:

• WP2 Understanding the drivers of radicalisation;

• WP3 Analysis of radical narratives online and offline;

• WP4 Counter-narratives against radicalization;

• WP5 New policies and tools for tackling radicalisation;

• WP 6 New skills for LEAs and practitioners in the field;

• WP 7 Validation and testing of the TRIVALENT solutions.

UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF RADICALISATION

Objectives

The main aim of this WP2 was the development of a multi-dimensional complex model aimed at better understanding the factors and steps leading to violent radicalization, as well as to identify different typologies of radicalised individuals. The model provides a series of indicators for early detection of the phenomenon of radicalisation, thus paving the way to its application within the context of future prevention/protection measures.

Methodology

In order to achieve this goal WP2 has been divided into 5 Tasks (T). Specifically:T2.1 – Review of international literature on radicalisation process in general – focused on scientific international literature on the process of radicalisation. The literature review was carried out in three ways:

a. by a systematic search of the existing literature on the topic since 2014;

b. by a content analys on a sample of scientific books pubblished from 2002 to 2017;

c. by a meta-analysis on a sample of 81 scientific articles pubblished from 2014 to 2017.

T2.2 – Survey involving LEAs and EU Experts – focused on a set of qualitative interviews with Civil Experts in order to develop an analysis about the future trends of terrorism and radicalisation and a survey involving LEAs officials by a Delphi questionnaire. T2.3 – Analysis of radicalised individual experiences and motivations – focused on violent radicalization at a subjective level, in a synergic, cumulative research effort with T2.2, using the the Osint (Open Source Intelligence) methodology applied to eighteen individual biographies both for political extreme right and left (9 profiles) and islamic extremists (9 profiles).T2.4 – Analysis of the Internal Organisations and Networks of Radical Groups – focused on internal organization, socialization and group dynamics of terrorist organizations, with regard to jihadi organizations, radical right-wing and left-wing arenas by a review of the scientific literature on these specific topics.

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Based on the findings of the previous tasks, T2.5 – Towards a multi-factor model of radicalization – developed a multi-factor model of radicalisation, taking into account determinants of different levels: micro-level (e.g. familial or psychological); meso-level (e.g. identification with the group); macro-level (e.g. historical reasons). In particular, the model developed by TRIVALENT constitutes an improvement of two existing models - VERA 2 and ERG22 + - which are tools set up to assessing the risk of violent extremism. These two models, however, seem not to discuss/tackle the importance of age, gender, and/or networks. Once the weaknesses of these tools have been identified, TRIVALENT multi-factor model added new dimensions of analysis such as the role of ideology that, in certain radicalisation theatres, has changed significantly, and the impact of so-called moderating factors, such as age, gender, networks, and leadership, on radicalization process.

Outcomes

From the point of view of the model assessment of radicalisation, it has to be acknowledged that:

• the vulnerability model seems to be prevalent to identify people potentially at risk of violent radicalization. Vulnerability arises as a cross between personal factors (age, psychological, ethnic origin, socio-economic status), macro-social processes (poverty, marginality, unemployment, national geo-political and political situation) and micro-social (relationship, marriage difficulties, behavior of the peer group);

• the action of cultural factors – as ideologies or imaginaries – are decisive in the path of violent radicalisation;

• Identification of typical pathways of violent radicalization, as a particular combination of variables / dimensions.

• for understanding and preventing terrorism and radicalisation it is necessary to consider the changing role of ideology and the impact of mediating factors such as age, gender, networks, and leadership on the radicalization process.

From the point of view of the typification of radicalization phenomena, it has to be acknowledged that:

• besides Jihadist arena – that certainly represent a security threat in Europe – there are also far-right and far-left/anarchist/anti-establishment groups ready to launch attacks on European territory;

• beside a radicalization that leads to organic belonging to an organized terrorist group, there is a violent radicalization through which are developed strong or weak ties with a network or with a radical and violent cultural area.

ANALYSIS OF RADICAL NARRATIVE ONLINE AND OFFLINE

Objectives

The key objective of this WP3 was the study of radical narratives online and offline. This included:

1. the analysis and comparison of radical narratives (online and offline);

2. the development of analytical techniques for identifying radical and violent social media accounts, using content, network and behaviour analysis methods;

3. the investigation of radicalisation/recruitment grooming communication strategies on social media;

4. the production of mechanisms to track radicalisation stages and alert LEAs of radicalisation turning points, where social media accounts become close to being radicalised.

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Methodology

To achieve the above goals, WP3 has been articulated in five main tasks. T3.1 – Semantic engine for automatic analysis of online and offline content – focused on the creation of a powerful semantic engine providing linguistic services which support and enable complex analyses of texts. T3.2 – Identification and analysis of radicalisation narratives offline – focused on the application of text mining techniques for analysing radicalisation narratives offline (coming from news sources as well as from radical magazines). T3.3 – Identification of radicalisation on social media – focused on the creation of classifiers able to automatically identify radical social media content and accounts. T3.4 – Radicalisation grooming patterns – focused on studying different types of grooming patterns emerging from social media communications including: (i) radicalisation influence patterns, (ii) network influence patterns and (iii) linguistic patterns. T3.5 – Alerts to radicalisation turning points – focused on the creation of alert tools integrating and encapsulating all the previous components. Testing and validation of the developed tools has been conducted with LEAs via questionnaires and focus groups.

Outcomes

The main results of this WP can be thus summarised:

• the creation of a semantic engine, which supports and enables complex analyses of texts, and that has been used for the automatic analysis of online and offline content;

• the creation of automatic mechanisms, based on a combination of social science and computer science models, to detect radical content and users;

• the analysis of radicalisation grooming patterns, including: radicalisation influence patterns, network influence patterns and linguistic patterns;

• the development of ‘alert’ tools based on the previously conducted research and a comprehensive assessment of how these tools fit with existing policing practices.

COUNTER-NARRATIVES AGAINST RADICALIZATION

Objectives

WP4 focused on three main objectives:

1. building of effective counter-narratives, targeting the specific categories and groups of radicalised individuals identified under WP2;

2. identification of the most effective channels for spreading effective communication strategies to deal with extremist narratives;

3. development of a methodology to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of counter-narratives in countering violent radicalisation.

Methodology

WP4 consisted of three Tasks interconnected among them and developed as follow. Task 4.1 – Building of the counter-narratives – addressed the issue of the spread of extremist narratives not only with regard to jihadist organisations, but also to right-wing and left-wing extremist groups. More specifically, building on the specific categories of radicalised individuals identified under WP2,

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as well as on the pool of data provided by WP3, it provided an in-depth analysis on: contents and channels used by the above extremist groups to spread their narratives and reach their selected target audiences, the intended audience or readership of a communication, publication or other message; the ways through which the above target audiences are addressed; the relation between the extremist narratives and the selected target audiences. In this respect, it has also been addressed the issue of the customatization of extremist narratives in accordance to the target audiences to which they are tailored. T4.2 – Selection of the communication channels – aimed at the development of a comprehensive communication strategies to deal with extremist narratives making use of a Swot analysis of various communication means based on the findings reached in previous task, in addition to a pilot testing with students of theories and techniques of mass communication at Catholic University, Milan, trying out a comprehensive communication strategy on the issues of extremism narratives, which goes beyond the dichotomy counter and alternative narratives.T4.3 – Measure of Effectiveness (MoE) methodology – addressed the need to develop a method assessing the implementation of the previous comprehensive communication strategy. In order to achieve this aim, a preliminary consideration of the already existing methods was carried out as regards both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Outcomes

The outcomes of Building of the counter-narratives paved the way for the identification of the most effective communication channels through which the counter-narrative can be spread across target audiences. The results of such selection are presented in detail in the report on Selection of the communication channels, which deals with the communication effort to address specific vulnerable people sectors, developing a comprehensive communication strategies to rise their resilience in the face of extremist and violent narratives. The outcomes of Selection of the communication channels are a set of guidelines for the assessment of the before identified comprehensive communication strategy.Finally, report on Measure of Effectiveness (MoE) methodology provides a method for assessing the implementation of the previous comprehensive communication strategy.

NEW POLICIES AND TOOLS FOR TACKLING RADICALISATION

Objectives

The aim of WP5 was to provide a set of policy and practical solutions directed at various stakeholders in the fight against violent radicalisation (e.g. policy-makers, LEAs, security practitioners, civil society actors, etc.). More specifically, the WP developed:

• Policy recommendations resulting from a comparative analysis of existing policies against radicalisation, a collection of best practices from different countries as well as from the outcomes of the research carried out under WP2 and WP3;

• Methods for fostering cooperation between LEAs and civil society, to enable the early detection of radicalisation symptoms across the most important agents of socialisation (e.g. families, schools, etc.);

• IT tools to foster real-time communication between the different actors involved in counter-radicalisation efforts.

Methodology

In order to achieve this goal, WP5 has been articulated into 5 Tasks (T). Specifically:

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T5.1 – Comparative analysis of existing counter-radicalisation policies focused on the analysis of five case-studies: Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, and the United Kingdom through the review of:

a. legal texts and scientific literature of policies implemented by EU institutions;

b. radicalisation trends in the EU;

c. preventive and prosecution measures.

T5.2 – Development of policy recommendations – focused on the state-of-the-art analysis of existing counter-radicalisation and counter-terrorism policies, examination of existing gaps, development of recommendations for future policies to policymakers, LEAs and CSAs addressing all the steps of the process of countering violent extremism - from prevention, investigation and prosecution to conviction, rehabilitation and reintegration – and their compliance with EU ethical and legal standards. T5.3 – Analysis of the current relationship between LEAs and civil society – focused on an end-user elicitation through a questionnaire directed to the EU LEAs within the TRIVALENT consortium, analysis of LEAs answers to identify main examples of successful cooperation and less favorable instances and analysis of best practices and case-studies within the literature. T5.4 – New model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society – focused on the analysis of answers provided by EU LEAs within TRIVALENT consortium, the identification of successful models and major difficulties in communication between LEAs and civil society and an analysis of best practices and case-studies provided by OSINT. Based on the findings of the previous tasks, T.5.5 – Development of a new IT communication tool – focused on the development of a new IT tool aimed at improving communication between LEAs and civil society and to be utilized by CSAs to report potential radicalisation cases.

Outcomes

• An overall convergence and standardisation amongst the national counter-radicalisation strategies in the analysed EU Member States, as well as the common need for structural reforms in terms of increasing resources dedicated to law-enforcement training and improving information sharing between LEAs.

• To reduce the cooperation gap between LEAs and civil society within a counter-radicalisation framework, the following mechanisms are proposed:

» Development of new strategies of community-approach and improvement of those already in place;

» Promotion of a system of involvement and participation of the public;

» Assessment of the root causes of radicalization;

» Selection of officers tasked with “community” duties on the basis of their social and communication skills, etc.

• A new model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society is developed based on the following three main pillars:

1. Mutual trust: CSOs should connect with LEAs in joint efforts towards radicalisation prevention and LEAs should take into account civil society actors’ existing differences, peculiarities and needs.

2. Training and simulations: Enhancing both civil society actors’ detection abilities and providing LEAs with specialised soft skills, as well as with technological, procedural and organisational capacities.

3. New communication channel: Need to introduce new IT communication tools that are able to meet both CSAs and LEAs’ needs.

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• A “Chatbot” prototype of IT communication tool (application) designed to help developing community and people engagement and participation in prevention policies within the field of radicalisation leading to violent extremism. The tool aims to encourage communication between citizens and LEAs through experts, representatives of communities, including civil society actors (CSAs) in general, taking into account the strategic role such actors play in implementing relationships based on mutual trust and common efforts between LEAs, frontline operators, community representatives and stakeholders in order to set up appropriate prevention measures.

NEW SKILLS FOR LEAS AND PRACTITIONERS IN THE FIELD

Objectives

The aim of WP6 titled – “New Skills for LEAs and Practitioners in the Field” – is to define a set of skills and competencies needed by LEAs and other practitioners in this field to counter the violent radicalisation phenomenon in an effective manner. This objective is achieved through:

• Identifying existing gaps within LEAs and other relevant actors;

• Providing guidance on acquiring the necessary abilities by developing a dedicated manual;

• Designing a training curriculum aimed specifically at helping LEA trainers to convey the outlined set of competencies and skills.

Methodology

In order to identify existing gaps within LEAs and other relevant actors, a threefold approach has been followed. A desktop research has been carried out to draw up a first inventory of gaps, discussed with various experts in the field and resulted in a questionnaire submitted to the LEA partners, members of TRIVALENT consortium.Further, at the initiative of TRIVALENT Executive Board deliberating on a proposal advanced by the Project Coordinator concerning the active participation of LEA partners in our project, a series of “LEAs workshops” (held in Rome, Brussels, Tirana, Lisbon, and Turin), open to the participation of TRIVALENT partners, experts and community/civil society representatives, have been organised to deal with and carry out in-depth discussion on specific topics of interest as regards the research objectives of this work package. Such methodological approach while conducive to promote synergic interaction of LEA partners between them and in relation to external participants, was also aimed and resulted in a fruitful training exercise, offering a real opportunity of exchange of experiences and information, analysis of specific issues, and involvement in the understanding of new skills and practices to be applied on the field. The methodology considered for the development of the manual to collect new skills needed to tackle radicalisation is multidimensional, mixed – oriented from both inductive research action and deductive approaches – and rooted in different social research methods, such as:

1. Theoretical background of Soft Skills;

2. Secondary source analysis to understand the context from a global perspective;

3. Feedbacks from workshops with LEAs.

On the basis of the results obtained, a training curriculum has been designed and tested. An evaluation process has been planned through the development of a questionnaire. This Final Evaluation Questionnaire gives the opportunity to have a feedback on the course, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of this training activity and allowing to improve any future editions.

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Outcomes

From the gap analysis, the main training-professional and organizational needs regarding LEAs can be thus summarised:

• to enhance occupational/professional culture, which should be highly taken into account in order to ensure the efficiency of the implementation of new policies.

• to promote initiatives at the institutional and individual levels. The organisation has to be supportive towards initiatives in the communities. On the individual level, police officers have to be confident enough to share information and build trust with the communities they serve.

• to improve knowledge of the social fabric.

• to enhance the culture of human rights within any approach whereby police organisations, as well as prison facilities, should ensure their practice alignment with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the European Convention on Human Rights. In this vein, ethnic framing and cultivation of stereotyping need to be addressed within LEAs.

• to improve trust and sharing information among police apparatuses: a legal framework and protocols on the European level could contribute to this ambition.

Based on the emerging results from the gap-analysis, workshops discussion and the findings related to current threat scenarios, a “Manual for Improved Counter-Radicalisation Efforts” has been developed aimed at determining advanced skills for LEAs. In this respect, the Manual acknowledges the two main pillars of the previous analysis as regards:

a. community policing;

b. a multi-agency approach.

At the end of the Manual, the main findings and results are classified and presented as “Guidelines for the Implementation of New Soft skills for LEAs” aimed at providing useful insights on how to design and implement soft skills for LEAs in order to tackle radicalisation. In particular, main methods and techniques are identified specifying the single specific stages (Detect, Prevention and Counter) and levels (Individual, Organisational and Cultural) for the implementation of soft skills.On the basis of the results obtained, a “train-the-trainers” programme has been developed, namely a training curriculum specifically aimed at helping LEA trainers to convey the identified set of competencies and skills.In particular, the training curriculum focuses on countering Islamic radicalisation and identifies as its main teaching method the frontal lessons, which are considered the most useful way both to transmit knowledge to participants and offer them the opportunity to discuss and exchange their experiences.

VALIDATION AND TESTING OF TRIVALENT SOLUTIONS

Objectives

The aim of WP7 was about the testing of the solutions developed under previous WPs and their validation, by involving both project partners and external end-users (experts and practitioners in the field of counter-radicalisation). The testing phase was exclusively addressed to the IT tools carried out in WP3 and WP5: respectively, an analytic tool for identification of radicalisation narratives on/offline and IT tool for early detection of radicalising and radicalised profiles on social media, and an IT tool for enhancing and encouraging communication between LEAs and civil society.

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Following the testing phase the tools have been validated, in addition to other project solutions developed under WP5 and WP6: respectively, a new model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society, a manual for LEAs with new skills and competencies required to improve the effectiveness in order tackle radicalisation and ‘train-the-trainers’ curriculum.WP7 aimed to achieve the following main goals, through validation as a result of evaluation of TRIVALENT solutions, as above specified:

• Early detection, through IT tools, aimed to identify radical profiles on social media and/or radical contents on the internet;

• Training for LEAs identifying new skills required for tackling radicalisation;

• Enhancing cooperation between LEAs and civil society, even by means of a specific IT tool that ensures and facilitates the communication.

The consequent exploitation of the above mentioned tools and manuals is another purpose of the validation activities.

Methodology

Each of the items indicated have been trained and constantly monitored by active members of WP7. Several meetings, coordinated by WP7 leader, have been made, in order to support the implementation of the IT tools. During the project, other non-LEAs partners and external stakeholders have been involved, thus implementing and perfecting the IT tools and the training manuals with elements gained by on field experience.All LEAs involved in the project were coordinated, including representatives from different departments, together with technological companies and the academic world. For each task workshops were set up, where participants had the possibility to test e refer on the products through targeted questionnaires.

Outcomes

The role of WP7 is to make the consortium aware about the effectiveness of those solutions aimed mainly for LEAs, civil society and their interaction. This purpose has been facilitated from the active cooperation among all WPs during the implementation of the single tasks. The concrete results already achieved were originated especially from the continuous sharing of opinions between TRIVALENT partners, stakeholders and practitioners in the field. The described synergies allowed to gather positive feedbacks but also to implement the tools making changes if needed. That happened in particular for scientific products. The manual of new skills and the new model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society could represent a clear example of how cooperation between researchers and practitioners could be incisive.

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TRIVALENT IMPACT:EVENTS & PUBLICATIONS

TRIVALENT impact can be also measured with regard to manifold events, distinguished into three main categories:

a. Trivalent events organised within the project;

b. LEAs workshops, organised with and between LEA partners;

c. Participated events, to which representatives of the project or project partners were invited to participate.

Together with the lists of such event, it is added here below a list of publications issued by participants to TRIVALENT project.

A. TRIVALENT events

Here below a list of the events organised within TRIVALENT project, for purposes from time to time of developing TRIVALENT research activities and supporting the dissemination of consequent results, in synergy between partners, in collaboration also with TRIVALENT AB, and with the participation of experts, stakeholders, institutional and civil society representatives.

• 2017, June 22, TRIVALENT project inaugural conference on “Europe and the challenges of radicalisation: what answers?”, held at the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Rome.

• 2017, November 24, “Radicalisation: the role of the institutions, religious communities and civil society”, TRIVALENT workshop organised with the aim of presenting the objectives of the project and discussing the new scenarios of radicalisation, Rome.

• 2018, January 22, TRIVALENT “Prevention of Radicalization – Symposium” organised jointly with Witten-Herdecke University with the aim of presenting the project to a public of German institutional, civil society representatives and experts, Bochum (De).

• 2019, April 11, “Engaging with communities”, TRIVALENT workshop held at the Great Mosque of Rome organised in collaboration with Confederazione Islamica Italiana.

• 2019, November 5: “Understanding radical behaviour in support of preventing and countering violent extremism”, TRIVALENT seminar organised by UniRoma3 and the Royal Military Academy, Brussels.

• 2020, February 10-11, “Preventing violent extremism and the role of civil society: present and future challenges”, TRIVALENT conference organised at the initiative of TRIVALENT Advisory Board in collaboration with Torino local police, Torino, Palazzo di Città, Sala delle Colonne.

• 2020, February 12-14, “Train-the-Trainers course”, organised by DAP-DG Formazione, held in Rome, at the “Scuola Superiore dell’Esecuzione penale Piersanti Mattarella”

• 2020, March 26, planned conference “Europe and the challenges of radicalisation: what answers?”, scheduled to be held at the Italian Senate. [NB. This planned “final conference” (provided for in order “to present the key results of the project” to “an expert audience and to ensure large overall participation” of public: T8.4), due to Covid-19 pandemic and consequent sanitary emergence with related restrictive measures, it has not been held. The possibility to postpone it to a further date, beyond project deadline (April 30, 2020), was also considered, supported by the great majority of Consortium partners, but it was withdrawn, after consulting with PO.]

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• 2020 March 27, final workshop “Validation of the Project Solutions”, planned to be held at Roma Tre University (Great Hall). [NB. This planned “final workshop” (provided for in order to be “dedicated to the validation of all the TRIVALENT solutions”: T7.1), due to Covid-19 pandemic and consequent sanitary emergence with related restrictive measures, has not been held in presence, such as originally scheduled, but it has taken place by remote.]

B. LEAs workshops

In our project, the large majority of partners are Law Enforcement Agencies, i.e. LEAs personnel from state police, penitentiary police, and local police. This important and qualifying feature of TRIVALENT project worth of being valorised was “exploited”, so to say, in a double way:

a. either from the point of view of the active involvement of law enforcement professionals and their interaction with academics and experts in research activities;

b. with regard to the fact that as end-users such professionals can and should take stance by experimenting, discussing and testing proposals, tools and means, as well as new skills and competences apt to tackle the phenomenon of radicalisation leading to violent extremism.

In this sense, the idea of organising so called “LEAs workshops”, open to the participation of TRIVALENT partners, experts and community/civil society representatives and aimed to deal with specific topics of interest as regards TRIVALENT research objectives, including dissemination purposes towards targeted audiences, with regard in particular to professional operators and practitioners in the field, was proposed by the Project Coordinator at the occasion of the Executive Board held on March 7, 2018, and there approved. It basically focuses on the need that became evident during the project activities to join together research work with training, as well as dissemination and exploitation efforts. LEAs workshops have been programmed in order to represent, if not a model-experience, an example of training practice experimented by LEAs partners and personnel in support of a better understanding of the means and measures useful to prevent and counter such phenomenon, especially at territorial level (community policing).

• 2018, June 13, 1st LEAs workshop on “Gap analysis, New skills, Cooperation models with Civil society”, Rome.

• 2018, September 24, 2nd LEAs workshop, “Preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism - Community Policing, New skills for LEAs and practitioners and New model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society”, Brussels.

• 2019, May 28-29, 3rd LEAs workshop, “Communicate to prevent: Training approaches to counter radicalisation”, Tirana (hosted by Albanian State Police)

• 2019, June 26-29, 4th LEAs workshop (articulated in three sessions), “Radicalisation patterns and IT early detection tools”, “Cooperation between LEAs and civil society & IT communication tool”, and “ LEAs new skills & train-the-trainers”, Rome (hosted by Uniroma3, CeAS).

• 2019, October 14-15, 5th LEAs workshop, “Test and validation of the Chatbot associated with the new model of cooperation between LEAs and civil society”, Lisbon (hosted by DGRSP).

C. Participated events

Here below a list of the events in which TRIVALENT representatives were invited to take part by making speeches or intervening in panels/sessions, or in which single Partners were invited to participate.

• 2017, December 5, TRIVALENT participation to “European Commission’s 9th Community of Users on Safe, Secure and Resilient Societies Workshop on Radicalisation”, Brussels, Belgium (follow up: “TRIVALENT contributions to the Interim Report priority topics”).

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• 2018, January 24-25, TRIVALENT project participation to the meeting organised as final event of Saffron project, Brussels.

• 2018, September 3-6, TRIVALENT project participation to “18th World Summit on Counter-Terrorism”, Herzliya, Israel (Sept. 4, Plenary Session, Key note address by TRIVALENT Project Coordinator).

• 2018, October 17, TRIVALENT project participation to “RAN Research Seminar”, Amsterdam (Mercure Amsterdam City).

• 2018, October 17, TRIVALENT project participation to “Building Alliance – Preventing Terror Conference“,Brussels, participating Partner Z&P;

• 2018, November 27, TRIVALENT project participation to “Key drivers of radicalisation – perspectives from the Balkans, the Arabian Gulf and Belgium” Brussels, participating Partner Z&P.

• 2019, January 10, TRIVALENT project participation to “Workshop on radicalisation: EU-funded projects tackling ideology and polarisation”, European Commission, Directorate-General Migration and Home Affairs, Albert Borschette Congress Center (CCAB), Room 3C, Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels.

• 2019, January 30-31, TRIVALENT project participation to “EU Internet Forum - CSEP Campaign”, Brussels, participating Partner Z&P.

• 2019, February 20, TRIVALENT project participation to “Training day on violent radicalization”, Riga, participating Partner LTV.

• 2019, April 2, TRIVALENT project participation to “Infopol Expo 112 Belgium”, Kortrijk, participating Partner LPV.

• 2019, April 2, TRIVALENT project participation to “Journée européenne concernant la lutte contre la radicalisation”, Amphithéâtre Lumière, 40 Avenue des Terroirs de France, 75 012 Paris, participating Partner VISEO.

• 2019, April 2, TRIVALENT project participation to “Infopol Expo 112 Belgium”, Kortrijk, participating Partner LPV.

• 2019, May 17, TRIVALENT project participation to “IISFA FORUM 2019” (International Information System Forensics Association), University of Foggia (I), participating Partner TECOMS.

• 2019, June 18, TRIVALENT project participation to “The Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation”, London, participating Partner OU.

• 2019, June 25-26, TRIVALENT project participation to “Terrorism and Social Media: International Conference 2019”, Swansea University Bay Campus (UK), participating Partner OU.

• 2019, October 9, TRIVALENT project participation to “SASIG Workshop on “Improving the digital landscape for our children”, London, participating Partner OU;

• 2019, October 15-18, TRIVALENT project participation to “International Conference of the EENeT – European Expert Network on Terrorism”, Athens, participating Partner UCSC.

• 2019, November 20-22, TRIVALENT project participation to “Milipol Paris - The 21st edition of Milipol Paris”, Paris Nord - Villepinte 82 Avenue des Nations, Parigi, participating Partner TECOMS.

• 2020 April 3, invitation on behalf of the organisers, European University Institute (EUI), Florence, to participate to the “Preventing Violent Extremism Workshop” [NB. Event rescheduled on 23 September 2020: https://www.eui.eu/events/detail?Eventid=528020].

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Publications

• 2020: Francesco Antonelli, Radicalizzazione. Teorie e problemi, Milano, Mondadori (forthcoming).

• 2020: Francesco Antonelli, “La costruzione della radicalizzazione violenta nella letteratura scientifica internazionale. Un’analisi statistico-testuale”, in Sicurezza e Scienze Sociali, 9, 3 (forthcoming).

• 2020: Maria Luisa Maniscalco, “London knife attacks: a failure of deradicalisation and rehabilitation programs?”, in Democrazia&Sicurezza, 10, n. 1 (forthcoming).

• 2020: Valeria Rosato, “Criticità e sfide nella lotta al terrorismo e alla radicalizzazione in Europa” in Democrazia&Sicurezza, 10, n. 1 (forthcoming).

• 2020: Tracie Farrell, Oscar Araque, Miriam Fernandez and Harith Alani, “On the use of Jargon and Word Embeddings to Explore Culture within the Reddi’s Manosphere”, in WebSci ‘20 Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Web Science.

• 2020: Oscar Araque, Carlos A. Iglesias, An Approach for Radicalization Detection Based on Emotion Signals and Semantic Similarity, IEEE Access (Volume: 8).

• 2020: Pablo Marsal, Á., Oscar Araque & Carlos A. Iglesias, Radical Text Detection Based on Stylometry”, in Proceedings of International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy. Valletta, Malta : ScitePress.

• 2020: Fernandez, Miriam and Alani, Harith, “Artificial Intelligence and Online Extremism: Challenges and Opportunities”, in McDaniel, John L.M. and Pease, Ken eds. Predictive Policing and Artificial Intelligence. Taylor & Francis.

• 2020: Francesco Antonelli, “Il posto dell’attore nei radicalization and terrorism studies” in Rivista Trimestrale di Scienza dell’Amministazione, 20, 1.

• 2020: M. Bernardini - S. Borrillo - C.A. Cascino - C. De Angelo - F. De Lellis - R. Denaro - N. Di Mauro - E. Francesca - D. Pioppi - R. Tottoli, Eds., “Syllabus knowing Islam to counter radicalism”. University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean Study Centre on the Islamic World, Napoli.

• 2019: Maria Luisa Maniscalco, Valeria Rosato, Eds., Preventing Radicalisation and Terrorism in Europe A comparative analysis of policies, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Preface: Luigi Moccia, UNIROMA3, TRIVALENT Coordinator; Contributors: Santina Musolino from UNIROMA3, Cind du Bois from ERM-KMS, Alessandro Zanasi, Giovanni Vassallo, Angelo Rollo from Z&P.

• 2019: Francesco Antonelli, “Some Hypotheses on Gender, Radicalization and Jihadism. A Qualitative Research on Experts”, in Sicurezza e Scienze Sociali, 8, 1.

• 2019: Francesco Antonelli, Ed., Working Papers In Terrorism Studies: The Present and the Future Of Violent Radicalization In Europe, RomaTre-Press.

• 2019: Fernandez, Miriam; Gonzalez-Pardo, Antonio and Alani, Harith, “Radicalisation Influence in Social Media”, in Journal of Web Science, 6.

• 2019: Farrell, Tracie; Fernandez, Miriam; Novotny, Jakub and Alani, Harith. “Exploring Misogyny across the Manosphere in Reddit”, in WebSci ‘19 Proceedings of the 11th ACM Conference on Web Science.

• 2019: Ely Karmon, “The Jihadist Radicalization Processes in Europe (2001-2019)”, ICT website, July 28.

• 2019: Ely Karmon, “Paris Police Headquarters Stabbings – The “insider Threat”,” ICT website, October 27.

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• “2019: Ely Karmon, “ London Bridge Knifing Attack – Does Europe Learn?”, ICT website, December 8.

• 2018: Francesco Antonelli, Santina Musolino, Pina Sodano, “The Scientific Representation of the Radicalization: A Meta-Analysis on Scientific Journals (2014-2017)”, Paper for XIX International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress of Sociology, Toronto (Canada).

• 2018: Fernandez Miriam, Harith Alani, “Contextual Semantics for Radicalisation Detection on Twitter”, in SW4SG@ISWC.

• 2018: Fernandez, Miriam, Asif, Moizzah and Alani, Harith, “Understanding the Roots of Radicalisation on Twitter”, in WebSci ’18 Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science. Best paper award.

• 2017: Saif, Hassan; Dickinson, Thomas; Kastler, Leon; Fernandez, Miriam and Alani, Harith, “A Semantic Graph-Based Approach for Radicalisation Detection on Social Media”, in ESWC 2017, The Semantic Web - Proceedings, Part I, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer.

• 2017: “I musulmani in Europa: tra integrazione e radicalizzazione” , Maria Luisa Maniscalco, La cittadinanza europea, n.1.