The terrorist attacks perpetrated in Paris (January and November 2015) and Brussels (March 2016), which took the lives of more than 180 people, have once again made it clear that Jihadist-inspired international terrorism continues to represent a real major threat to safety in Europe. In the meantime, due to the intense violence promoted by organizations such as Daesh, Al-Qaeda and their affiliates and sympathizers in various places throughout the Arab and Muslim world in recent years, the international community is witnessing an unprecedented period of terrorist mobilization with significant consequences on a worldwide scale: suffering and death, international instability, fragile States, geopolitical tension, attacks, mass displacements and migration, reactions of anxiety and intolerance, etc.

The origin of these and other specific forms of violence and cruelty, and their most tragic effects, can be found in a common experience: violent radicalization, understood as the process through which individuals and groups of people follow ideas and ideologies and form groups which justify killing and aggression against innocents, while promoting sociopolitical organization systems contrary to freedom, democracy and equal rights between people and communities of different origins, beliefs and conditions. Jihadist radicalization processes feed into the continuity of international terrorism, which is why its prevention now constitutes a priority objective in security policies and strategies throughout the world. However, this is not an easy goal to pursue, because the dynamics of violent radicalization are diverse and occur in response to many causes, undergoing constant innovations resulting from the uprise of operational models which lend continuity to terrorist acts, the emergence of new focal points of Jihadist activity and the development of communication technologies and social networks.

This course will offer a broad overview of the problem of Jihadist radicalization and its links to international terrorism, discussing its full complexity on the basis of academic knowledge and the experience of security professionals. 

Moreover, the strategies which are being implemented inside and outside of Spain to prevent violent radicalization and put a stop to it will be reviewed. Thirdly, this course calls for the need to include the perspective of victims. To do so, it will include the attendance and testimony of several people affected by Jihadist terrorism, including Jana Gallardo, a victim of the attacks carried out in Madrid on March 11, 2004, and Pari Ibrahim, founder of the Free Yezidi Foundation, an organization created to prevent genocide against the Yazidi community that lives in northern Iraq. It has been mercilessly persecuted by Daesh and other Jihadist groups since the year of 2014.