START has joined the RESOLVE Network, a global network of individuals and organizations in the fields of policy and research that is headquartered at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and that focuses on issues related to violent extremism and community resilience.
START Director William Braniff currently serves on the RESOLVE Network’s Research Advisory Council, with START Executive Director Amy Pate and START Training Director Barnett Koven serving as organizational representatives.
“Given START’s experience training students and junior researchers on research methods, and its mission to inform counterterrorism policy and practice with scientific data and findings, we jive well with the mission of the RESOLVE Network,” Braniff said.
Braniff identified engagement with other academics on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) programs as one of the mutual goals shared by START and the RESOLVE Network.
“Both START and RESOLVE believe it is critical to work with young scholars around the world to increase the impact of their locally informed research in the policy community, and to drive better counterterrorism and P/CVE outcomes,” Braniff said.
“The link-up with the RESOLVE Network’s Secretariat, based at USIP, is very attractive given Leanne Erdberg’s leadership in convening international stakeholders on critical issues that START is passionate about, such as measurement and evaluation for P/CVE programs, the threat of racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism and violent extremist disengagement,” Braniff said.
START and the RESOLVE Network have collaborated in the past, such as when Braniff spoke on “CVE as a Grand Strategic Response to Terrorism” at the RESOLVE 2019 Global Forum.
“The only way to marginalize the effects and attractiveness of violent extremism is to foster alternative forms of community-centric empowerment,” Braniff said during his presentation. “CVE is not a sideshow, it’s the main event.”
START is also currently partnering with several universities in Malaysia on building P/CVE research capacity that parallel RESOLVE Network projects.
“START and the RESOLVE Network are working together to make these projects as complementary as possible,” Koven said. “This newly formalized relationship will only serve to strengthen these, and other, collaborative efforts.”