From terrorism to extremism: policies for preventing violent extremism in Europe

This article analyses the evolution of the paradigm of the antiterrorist strategy and its most recent manifestation in Europe: policies for prevention of violent extremism (PVE). By means of a wide-ranging survey of the literature evaluating the PVE at the European level, the article is concerned with the main political and social consequences of these policies as they are described in the academic literature. By focusing on abstract, ideological elements — extremism — and concentrating on the related ideologies, the result of the PVE is a prevention policy that penetrates and securitises social, domestic, and private spheres, while also incorporating new security-related actors. As will be shown, this logic turns out to be problematic and, in some cases, counterproductive.