Richard McNeil-Willson is a Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, the European University Institute, Florence. He works primarily on the BRaVE Project, a European Commission project exploring issues of extremism, polarisation and counter-extremism in Europe. He has a PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, on the impact of counterterrorism programmes, policy and policing on ‘Islamist’ organisations in Britain and Denmark, and additional degrees from the universities of Edinburgh, Durham and Exeter.
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Published in: Global ExtremesWhat the ‘war on terror’ can teach us about the fight against COVID-19‘Extremism’ must not be cast as an epidemic. But we can learn relevant lessons from the problems created in countering it.
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Published in: Global ExtremesWhat will 2020 bring? Finding our way in a more polarised worldAs 2020 and a new decade begins, why are we more polarised than ever before and can we do anything about it?
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Published in: Global ExtremesNot all ‘extremisms’ are created equal: lessons from the Christchurch attackExtreme far-right views have seeped into parts of the media and politics, normalised in parts of life that other...
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Published in: Global ExtremesThe Prevent database: counter extremism is watching youThe Prevent databases are not concerning because they are a new revelation; they are concerning because they are not.
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Published in: openDemocracyUKBeware the terrorist lurking in your bookcase: are British citizens being prosecuted for thought crimes?Britain's counter-terrorism laws are becoming more sweeping and powerful. They are beginning to criminalise not only...
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Published in: North Africa, West AsiaWhy we can’t trust current analysis of the Islamic StateThe rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has taken everyone in the west by surprise, resulting in a frenzy of...