International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

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International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ISCR) is a terrorism research institute based at King's College London. It is a collaboration between King's College, the University of Pennsylvania in the United, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention in Jordan. It is headed by the King's College terrorism expert Peter Neumann.

Origins, history and launch

ISCR was launched in January 2008 but appears to have been planned at least by early 2007. Its website was registered on 16 April 2007 and it was registered as a UK company limited by guarantee (i.e. without shares) on 28 August 2007. The first press reference to ISCR is an article in The Times Higher Education Supplement on 23 November 2007. [1]

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith sets out the Government's new intiative in a speech to the conference

ISCR's was launched at a conference in London which it called 'the First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence'. The conference, which took place on 17 and 18 January 2008, attracted controversy over a month earlier when it was revealed that Avi Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, had planned to attend, but that Israel's foreign and justice ministries had advised him not to in case he was arrested for alleged war crimes. [2] Dichter headed Shin Beth when it helped plan the assassination of Hamas military commander Saleh Shehada in July 2002. The operation killed Shehada's wife and nine children. [3] That early report aside, the most newsworthy aspect of the event was a speech by the UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on the morning of the first day [4] launching the government's new anti-terror intiative. Speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme before her speech, Smith said there were specific examples of websites that "clearly fall under the category of gratifying terrorism" and that, "There is growing evidence people may be using the internet both to spread messages and to plan specifically for terrorism."

A panel at the conference featuring (from left to right) Daniel Benjamin, Sadig Al-Mahdi, Nick Fielding, Richard Dearlove and Frank Gardner.

[5] The government's new intiative coincided with ISCR's first major research 'Countering Online Radicalisation', and no doubt ISCR's launch and the launch of the government's new terrorism intiative were deliberately timed.

Other keynote speakers at the event included US Senator Chuck Hagel, the Vice-President of Colombia Francisco Santos Calderon, the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis. Several prominent terrorism experts and commentators featured as panelists including the BBC's Frank Gardner, Olivier Roy, Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation, Richard Dearlove (former head of MI6) and Daniel Benjamin of the Brookings Institution. [6]

Structure and personnel

ICSR's director Peter Neumann
The logos of the four collaborating institutions - King's College London, the University of Pennsylvania, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention.

ICSR was incorporated as a UK company limited by guarantee (i.e. without shares) on 28 August 2007. As of 28 August 2009 ISCR's website states that it is 'currently in the process of being registered as a charity in England and Wales', but is not registered with the Charity Commission. [7] It is headed by the King's College terrorism expert Peter Neumann, who is overseen by four academics representing each of the collaborating institutions and a small board of trustees comprising of figures from government and finance.

Trustees

As of 20 August 2009, the directors of International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence Ltd (essentially the organisation's trustees) were the former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, the former Marks and Spencer executive John Sacher and the American former Wickes executive Henry Sweetbaum, [8] the latter of whom is the organisation's chairman. [9]

Sweetbaum is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, [10] which may explain his involvement. Kim Campbell is Secretary General of the Club de Madrid [11] which organised the 'International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security' in 2005, for which ICSR's director Peter Neumann was Academic Director. [12]

Kim Campbell and Henry Sweetbaum were involved from the offset, whilst John Sacher was appointed on 18 January 2008 following the resignation of Stephen Barclay, [13] a Charter Accountant, financier and a governor of the London School of Economics. Like Sweetbaum Barclay is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Leadership

Staff

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Website www.icsr.info

Resources

References

  1. ↑ Rebecca Attwood, 'Anti-terror funds awarded', Times Higher Education Supplement, 23 November 2007; p.5 No. 1821
  2. ↑ Rory McCarthy, 'NewsWorld newsIsraelIsraeli minister cancels UK trip in fear of arrest', The Guardian, 7 December 2007
  3. ↑ Israeli avoids UK arrest threat,BBC News Online, 6th December 2007
  4. ↑ Tom Patterson, The Journal (Newcastle),17 January 2008; p.2
  5. ↑ quoted in Hélène Mulholland, 'Government targets extremist websites', guardian.co.uk, 17 January 2008
  6. ↑ PDF Copy of 'First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence', <http://www.icsr.info/conference.php?id=3>, created 22 August 2009
  7. ↑ ICSR, Support ICSR, [Accessed 28 August 2009]
  8. ↑ Companies House Direct, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, Appointments 20 August 2009
  9. ↑ ICSR, Governance, [Accessed 28 August 2009]
  10. ↑ ‘SWEETBAUM, Henry Alan’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008
  11. ↑ Club de Madrid, Structure and Organisation > Board of Directors > Kim Campbell [Accessed 28 August 2009]
  12. ↑ see Peter Neumann page
  13. ↑ Companies House Direct, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, Appointments 20 August 2009
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