Integrative Complexity Interventions to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism, 1-7
Nemr, Christina, and Sara Savage. 2019. New York: Global Center on Cooperative Security.
This source is a policy brief produced by Christina Nemr and Sara Savage for the Global Center on Cooperative Security, a New York-based research institute specialising in the development of human-rights based policies to address contemporary security challenges. Though the piece is, again, focused on the topic of preventing or countering violent extremism (P/CVE), the relevance of its insights into quantifying the cognitive simplification that contributes to polarisation and conflict extends to the field of peacebuilding as a whole. In particular, the article explores the metric of integrative complexity, situated on a one-to-seven scale, as a means of determining an individual’s propensity to favour the black-and-white understandings that lay the narrative foundation for conflict: a lower score indicates a propensity for binary thinking, while a higher figure demonstrates that an individual has retained the cognitive capacity necessary to integrate and consider multiple perspectives. Previous studies have found that a significant drop in the integrative complexity of polarised parties drastically increased the likelihood of a short-term escalation in violent conflict; integrative complexity interventions, thus, seek to tackle the binary thinking which prioritises one value or facet of an individual’s identity at the expense of others. Interestingly, this source moves quickly from the example of P/CVE programmes to focus on broader, global patterns of integrative complexity interventions. Since 2010, more than 80 such programmes have been conducted globally in states ranging from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Pakistan, with a notable impact on the reduction of prejudice and violence amongst participants. Though certainly not a panacea for all instances of intergroup conflict, the concept of integrative complexity interventions introduced by Nemr and Savage introduces a novel manner of targeting the individual cognitive factors that render actors susceptible to the polarised worldview central to violent conflict, a vital step in ensuring the positive behavioural changes necessary for a lasting peace.
Link: https://www.globalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/GCCS-PB-IC-Interventions-Prevent-Counter-Violent-Extremism-2019.pdf