Special Issue on Violent Extremism 2026

A conceptual illustration showing a lone figure in a green shirt walking along a crumbling stone path that disintegrates into scattered fragments and fiery orange chaos on the right. The left depicts a serene green landscape with a setting sun, rolling hills, and trees, symbolizing the fragmentation of ideological frameworks and the collapse of defined structures into disordered violent extremism.

Commentary

The end of ideological violence

By Clark McCauley

July 17, 2026

$A conceptual double-exposure photo showing a young adolescent's face blended with a cracked, weathered wall texture, symbolizing political alienation and disillusionment. The left half reveals the youth's serious expression while the right dissolves into fractured, peeling surfaces, visually representing distrust, powerlessness, and psychological fragmentation associated with the pathway from system-disillusionment toward political radicalism in Swedish adolescents.$

Research Article

System-disillusioned youth radicalize: The role of political alienation in the formation of political radicalism

By Marta Miklikowska & Tomasz Besta

July 14, 2026

$A photo showing a fragmented, close-up human face in muted blue-gray tones, overlaid with distorted textures and streaks of vivid red. The image is heavily manipulated with cracked, glass-like fractures and double-exposure effects that obscure the eyes, evoking themes of psychological rupture, obscured identity, and violence—visually paralleling the article's discussion of ideology-free extremism fixated on aggression itself.$

Commentary

Extremism without ideology

By Quassim Cassam

July 9, 2026

A photo showing a close-up impasto oil painting of a human face composed of fragmented, palette-knife patches in blue, orange, yellow, red, and white. The mosaic-like brushstrokes assemble piercing blue eyes, nose, and mouth from disparate color blocks, visually evoking the article's "salad bar" metaphor of composite, hybrid extremist worldviews built from diverse ideological fragments.

Commentary

Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler

By Stephane Baele

July 8, 2026

Commentary

The erosion of conceptual clarity in the study of political violence

By Arie Perliger

July 6, 2026

$A mixed-media collage portrait showing a faceless human figure constructed from torn paper fragments in muted tones of beige, gray, blue, and brown. The fractured, layered composition assembles disparate scraps into a single ambiguous form, visually evoking the article's theme of fragmented, patchwork ideologies and the conceptual incoherence behind "salad bar" extremism, where contradictory pieces combine into one unstable identity.$

Perspective

Why the ‘salad bar of ideologies’ does not help us understand contemporary violent extremism

By John Horgan & Morgan Shayler

June 16, 2026

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System-disillusioned youth radicalize: The role of political alienation in the formation of political radicalism

Extremism without ideology

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System-disillusioned youth radicalize: The role of political alienation in the formation of political radicalism

Extremism without ideology

Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler

The erosion of conceptual clarity in the study of political violence

Why the ‘salad bar of ideologies’ does not help us understand contemporary violent extremism