Radicalization and Extremism

This article is focused on course 8 of the VirtuEU internationally funded Erasmus project. The topic is radicalization (and extremism). One has to understand where radicalization comes from to then be able to prevent it. When feeling distrust in national governments and when feeling excluded from decision-making processes (marginalized) violent and extremist groups may appear. Deradicalization is an objective, especially of youths in higher education. The process will hence involve educating for critical thinking, for deradicalization to occur. Certain political groups are gaining traction by appealing to woes felt by discontent groups in the EU democratic system. Increasing crime rates in Europe are being attributed to increasing migration levels in the EU and populist politicians are taking advantage of this to gain votes. Climate change, the energy crisis, and wars further undermine social stability in free democratic countries. VOSviewer analyses are performed in this article to increase awareness of certain keywords in the Scopus database literature. Radicalization AND “European Union”; and Deradicalization AND process; were the basis of two Scopus searches and subsequent bibliometric analyses undertaken. Exercises are also given herein for VirtuEU (or other) students to do and hence reflect on their daily lives and realities.