By Eric Rosand | October 19, 2017
Observing recent developments in the United States, one might assume that countering/preventing violent extremism (CVE or PVE) is a quickly disappearing policy fad of the Obama administration. These efforts encompass a range of law enforcement and non-law enforcement means to prevent individuals from being radicalized to violence, with a focus on addressing the grievances that make individuals vulnerable to recruitment to terrorist organizations and intervening before individuals become violent.
The Trump administration has zeroed out the short-lived Department of Homeland Security CVE grants program, effectively disbanded the inter-agency CVE task force, and showed nothing but disdain for the CVE policy of the Obama-era that sought to empower communities and catalyze locally-led interventions to build resilience against violent extremism across the ideological spectrum. Most recently, in her Congressional testimony last month on “Threats to the Homeland,” Acting Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Elaine Duke eschewed the “countering violent extremism” framing of the Obama-era, pivoting instead to what the current White House views to be the more muscular and targeted label of “terrorism prevention.”