The International Hub on Behavioural Insights into Counter Terrorism will utilize cognitive psychology, behavioural economics and social sciences to enhance understanding about these continuing threats to international peace and safety.
“Implementing a behavioural lens into counter-terrorism, the Hub will let us detect risk and resilience factors and create empirically supported interventions for both policymakers and professionals.”
Assistance to nations, associations and civic society
The International Hub was created through an agreement signed in September together with the State of Qatar, and will be the earliest UNOCT Programme Office from the Gulf area.
“It enables us to work closely together with our beneficiaries in the area, to have a better knowledge of regional and national demands, and to reinforce the tranquility of our specialized and capacity-building help”, stated Mr. Voronkov.
Beyond advancing and conducting research, the heart will help countries, regional organizations and civil society partners with building and implementing initiatives and programmes, besides encouraging partnerships to share experience, knowledge, and lessons learned.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, stated his country’s keenness to sponsor the International Hub stems from the unequivocal policy dependent on the values, culture, and teachings of the real Islam, that deny terrorism, as well as the belief that fighting”this phenomenon” could only be done through a holistic and comprehensive strategy that addresses its root causes.
Complex variables drive violent extremism
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve assisted in forging the relationship between handwashing and saving lives. However, their usage in counter-terrorism is comparatively new.
“In life, we often require just a small bit of assistance, or even a nudge, to differentiate between right and wrong decisions when they’re dealing with complicated problems. Terrorism and violent extremism are results of this intricate interplay between lopsided suggestions and people’ inward-looking situational evaluation and answers”, he explained.
Field study conducted by UNOCT and from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) involving overseas terrorist fighters, has shown that there’s not any single pathway to terrorism.
Mr. Shah reported that a mapping exercise performed lately by UNOCT and spouses points to the necessity to further research and leverage possible behavioural insights for avoidance.
“We are eager to learn how this research can be tapped, for example in tactical communications in Implementing sports and also its own value for preventing and countering violent extremism, in attempts to increase awareness, enable community and peer responses, and also in designing exude intervention programs, offline and online, to steer clear vulnerable people from violent extremism”, he explained.
