The Soufan Center Webinar | “A Perfect Storm: White Supremacists, Conspiracy Theories and Violent Extremism”

Wednesday, June 30, 2021 | 01:30 PM ET

The Soufan Center, in partnership with the Airey Neave Trust, hosted a virtual Side Event on the margins of the UN High Level Counterterrorism Conference, co-hosted with the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Germany. This event, “A Perfect Storm: White Supremacists, Conspiracy Theories and Violent Extremism,” focused on the international dimensions of violent far-right extremist groups, including racially and ethnically motivated groups and white supremacy extremists. The discussion centered around lessons learned from Member States’ experiences in dealing with these threats and offered diplomats, experts, and practitioners an updated critical analysis of the threat and some concrete lessons learned and recommendations.

The Soufan Center’s Side Event to CT Week addressed the first two pillars of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy – I: Addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, and II: Measures to prevent and combat terrorism. The event tied in to the theme of Responding to New and Evolving Counter Terrorism Challenges in the New Decade for the High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States.

Panelists included:
Ambassador Päivi Kairamo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland;
Laila Bokhari, Former Deputy Minister/State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway;
Robert Orell, Radicalization Awareness Network, European Union;
Colin Clarke, Senior Research Fellow, The Soufan Center; and
Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director, The Soufan Center, as moderator.