Preventing/countering violent and hateful extremism in Morocco and Tunisia – understanding the role of civil society and international assistance

ABSTRACT

In light of the growing threat of violent and hateful extremism in North Africa, the international donor community has recently shifted its focus of attention towards civil society organisations (CSOs) as an important ally in contemporary P/CVE efforts. This has resulted in a growing number of local and international NGOs implementing P/CVE-related projects in Tunisia and Morocco. However, the lack of comprehensive empirical research on local CSOs engagement in P/CVE-efforts complicates the assessment of scope and impact of these initiatives. Little attention has been devoted to the perspective of front-line workers and the ways global P/CVE-policies are being reproduced and challenged on the ground. This paper aims to contribute to a broader understanding of challenges employees of local and international NGOs face in implementing P/CVE in non-Western contexts. Drawing on peacebuilding and development literature, it focuses on the experiences and practices of these actors and their interplay with the international donor community. 30 in-depth narrative interviews with local practitioners and international experts root this paper in rich empirical data that was analysed using Grounded Theory methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Violent extremism
• P/CVE
• civil society
• Morocco
• Tunisia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. see e.g. special issue of Third World Quarterly 2015; Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘The Local Turn in Peace Building’.

2. Mac Ginty, ‘Where is the local?’; Jabri, ‘Peacebuilding, the Local and the International’.

3. Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘The Local Turn in Peace Building’; Donais, ‘Peacebuilding and Local Ownership’.

4. Paris, ‘Saving Liberal Peacebuilding’.

5. Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘The Local Turn in Peace Building’, 764.

6. Nadarajah and Rampton, ‘The Limits of Hybridity and the Crisis of Liberal Peace’, 53.

7. Banks et al., ‘NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited’, 709.

8. Verkorken and van Leeuwen, ‘Civil Society in Peacebuilding’.

9. Van Leeuwen, ‘Partners in Peace’.

10. Kontinen and Millstein ‘Rethinking Civil Society in Development’, 73; MacGinty ‘The limits of technocracy and local encounters’, 2.

11. Allison and Taylor, ‘ASEAN’s “people-oriented” aspirations’, 33.

12. Sheperd, ‘Constructing Civil Society’, 904.

13. Krause, ‘Transnational Civil Society Activism and International Security Politics’, 28.

14. Meagher, ‘The Strength of Weak States?’

15. Edwards, ‘Civil Society’.

16. Kopecky and Mudde, ‘Uncivil Society?’

17. Verkorken and van Leeuwen, ‘Civil Society in Peacebuilding’.

18. Ibid., 164.

19. Holmer, ‘Countering violent extremism’, 6.

20. See e.g. Goodhand and Lewer, ‘Sri Lanka’; Aall, ‘What do NGOs Bring to Peacemaking?’; Ejdus et al., ‘Reclaiming the local in EU peacebuilding’.

21. Ejdus et al., ‘Reclaiming the local in EU peacebuilding’; Kappler and Richmond, ‘Peacebuilding and Culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina’; Mac Ginty, ‘International Peacebuilding and Local Resistance’.

22. Kappler and Richmond, ‘Peacebuilding and Culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, 268–270.

23. Autesserre, ‘The Trouble with the Congo’; Autesserre, ‘Peaceland’; Pouligny, ‘Peace Operations Seen from Below’; da Costa and John Karlsrud, ‘Bending the Rules’.

24. Jarstad and Belloni, ‘Introducing Hybrid Peace Governance’, 1.

25. Van Brabant, ‘Peacebuilding How?’; Hughes et al., ‘The struggle versus the song’; Mac Ginty, ‘Where is the local?’; Verkorken and van Leeuwen, ‘Civil Society in Peacebuilding’.

26. European Commission, ‘Operational Guidelines’.

27. United Nations, ‘Activities of the United Nations system in implementing the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’.

28. Ibid., 6.

29. OSCE, ‘The Role of Civil Society in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism’, 25–26.

30. United Nations, ‘Activities of the United Nations system in implementing the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’; OSCE 2018: 25).

31. Christensen, ‘Civil actors’ role in deradicalisation and disengagement initiatives’.

32. Ibid.

33. Davies, ‘Security, Extremism and Education’; Stephens, ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’; Mesok, ‘Counterinsurgency, community participation, and the preventing and countering violent extremism agenda in Kenya’.

34. Heath-Kelly, ‘Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual’.

35. Brown, ‘Gender, Religion, Extremism’; Mesok, ‘Counterinsurgency, community participation, and the preventing and countering violent extremism agenda in Kenya’.

36. Kienscherf, ‘Producing “Responsible” Self-Governance’, 174.

37. Mesok, ‘Counterinsurgency, community participation, and the preventing and countering violent extremism agenda in Kenya’, 730.

38. Van der Weert and Eijkmann, ‘Subjectivity in detection of radicalisation and violent extremism’.

39. Peddell et al., ‘Influences and vulnerabilities in radicalised lone-actor terrorists: UK practitioner perspectives’, 9.

40. Ibid., 9.

41. Van der Weert and Eijkmann, ‘Subjectivity in detection of radicalisation and violent extremism’.

42. Peddell et al., ‘Influences and vulnerabilities in radicalised lone-actor terrorists: UK practitioner perspectives’.

43. Mattsson, ‘Caught between the urgent and the comprehensible’, 13.

44. Ibid., 15.

45. Talentino, ‘Perceptions of Peacebuilding’, 153.

46. Martin, ‘Do Tunisian Secular Civil Society Organisations demonstrate a process of democratic learning?’ 797.

47. Al-Anani, ‘Islamist parties post-Arab spring’.

48. Bürkner and Scott, ‘Spatial imaginaries and selective in/visibility’, 9.

49. Yousfir, ‘“Civil Society” in Tunisia’.

50. Mihr, ‘Semi-structured interviews with non-state and security actors’, 66–68.

51. Watanabe and Merz, ‘Tunisia’s jihadi problem and how to deal with it’, 138–139.

52. The Soufan Group 2015, ‘Foreign Fighters’.

53. Masbah, ‘Moroccan foreign fighters’; Masbah, ‘Transnational security challenges in North Africa’; IRI, ‘Understanding Local Drivers of Violent Extremism in Tunisia’.

54. El-Said, ‘De-radicalising Islamists’.

55. CESE, ‘Une nouvelle Initiative nationale intégrée pour la jeunesse marocaine’.

56. Wainscott, ‘Bureaucratizing Islam’.

57. Gartenstein-Ross and Moreng, ‘Tunisian Jihadism after the Sousse Massacre’.

58. Dalmasso, ‘Surfing the Democratic Tsunami in Morocco’.

59. Fortier, ‘Contested Politics in Tunisia’.

60. Martin, ‘Tunisian Civil Society’; Yachoulti, ‘Shifting Landscape in Morocco’.

61. Brett et al., ‘Report on Lessons learned from Danish and other international efforts on countering violent extremism (CVE) in development contexts’, 20.

62. Interview with Imane, civil society activists, women organisation, Kasserine, 13 May 2018.

63. Informal conversation with Bilal, civil society activists, Tunis, 10.05.2018, Interview with Imane, civil society activists, women organisation, Kasserine, 13 May 2018.

64. Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022, Interview with Rachid, civil society activist and staff member of INGO, online, 20 May 2022.

65. Ayari, ‘Les facteurs favorisant l’extrémisme violent dans la Tunisie des années 2010’, 9.

66. Interview with Ahmed, researcher and civil society activists, Faculty of Social Science, Medenine 23 May 2018.

67. Interview with Lucas, international staff member, EU Delegation to Tunis, 21 May 2018, Interview with Alexander, International staff member, UN, Tunis, 14 May 2018, Interview with Peter, international staff member, Dutch Embassy, Tunis, 25 May 2018.

68. Interview with Peter, international staff member, Dutch Embassy, Tunis, 25 May 2018.

69. Interview with Lucas, international staff member, EU Delegation to Tunis, 21 May 2018.

70. Interview with Lucas, international staff member, EU Delegation to Tunis, 21 May 2018.

71. Koehler, ‘How and why we should take deradicalisation seriously’, 1.

72. Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022.

73. Informal conversation with Mohammed, civil society activists, Kasserine, 08 June 2022.

74. Interview with Marouen, civil society activist, civil society initative, Tunis, 25 May 2018.

75. Informal conversation with Moaz, civil society activists, Tunis, 07 May 2018.

76. Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022.

77. Banks and Hulme, ‘The Role of NGOs and Civil Society in Development and Poverty Reduction’, 12.

78. Interview with Hamza, researcher and civil society activists, Tunis, 09 May 2018.

79. Bastani and Gazotti, ‘Still a Bit Uncomfortable, to Be an Arm of the State’, 10.

80. Informal conversation with Karim, civil society activists, Kasserine, 10 March 2022.

81. Interview with Hamza, researcher and civil society activists, Tunis, 09 May 2018.

82. Interview with Fatma, civil society activists, youth organisation, Sousse, 19 May 1018; Informal conversation with Bilal, civil society activists, Tunis, 10 May 2018.

83. Interview with Adil, researcher and civil society activist, Tunis, 06 May 2018, #3, Interview with Ahmed, researcher and civil society activists, Faculty of Social Science, Medenine, 23 May 2018.

84. Interview with Hamza, researcher and civil society activists, Tunis, 09 May 2018.

85. Interview with Marouen, civil society activist, civil society initiative, Tunis, 25 May 2018, Informal conversation with Moaz, civil society activists, Tunis, 15 May 2018.

86. Informal conversation with Moaz, civil society activists, Tunis, 15 May 2018.

87. Informal conversation with Lina, researcher, online, 23 April 2022.

88. Interview with Aicha, civil society activist, civil society organisation, Tunis, 15 May and 16 May 2018.

89. Interview with Ahmed, researcher and civil society activists, Faculty of Social Science, Medenine, 23 May 2018, Interview with Mariem, civil society activists, Tunis, 10 May 2018.

90. Interview with Mariem, civil society activists, Tunis, 10 May 2018.

91. Interview with Ahmed, researcher and civil society activists, Faculty of Social Science, Medenine, 23 May 2018, Interview with Mohammed, civil society activists, Kasserine, 08 June 2022, Interview with Hamza, researcher and civil society activists, Tunis, 09 May 2018, Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022.

92. Interview with Hamza, researcher and civil society activists, Tunis, 09 May 2018, Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022.

93. Interview with Omar, development consultant and civil society activist, online, 27 April 2022, Interview with Rachid, civil society activist and staff member of INGO, online, 20 May 2022.

94. Interview with Rachid, civil society activist and staff member of INGO, online, 20 May 2022.

95. Interview with Sarah, civil society activists, Tunis, 07 May 2018, Interview with Mohammed, civil society activists, Kasserine, 08 June 2022.

96. Interview with Mohammed, civil society activists, Kasserine, 08 June 2022.

97. Interview with Sarah, civil society activists, Tunis, 07 May 2018, Interview with Ahmed, researcher and civil society activists, Faculty of Social Science, Medenine 23 May 2018.

98. Bürkner and Scott, ‘Spatial imaginaries and selective in/visibility’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lydia Letsch

Lydia Letsch has an academic background in anthropology and peace and conflict studies and is currently a PhD candidate in Transnational Governance at the SNS in Florence. Her doctoral project examines how local security arrangements emerge and function beyond formal institutions and how they impact communities in North African borderlands.