United Kingdom

The UK case is important in counter-extremism and resilience studies because, in many respects, the British experience precedes that of the rest of Europe – in terms of both counter-extremism and securitisation, especially when considering Muslim minority communities. The UK is notable for having a limited official far-right presence in mainstream politics and a fractured far-right activist network. However, far-right policies have been increasingly deployed by the successive right-wing governments and media. Furthermore, the UK represents an important site of debate around the securitisation process within counter-extremism, largely due to the controversial Prevent programme. As a greater focus on counter-extremism has developed and the securitised lens has expanded, Prevent’s strategy has continued to reproduce a neo-colonial racist ideology and embed racialised inequality. As a result of this, debate over Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) has become increasingly polarised and community challenges of counter-extremism more evident – and ‘resilience-building’ more difficult. Such processes challenge core assumptions about violent extremism and offer lessons for radically reconsidering how policy responses can and should be conducted, in Britain and elsewhere.