Cutting through Complexity: Evaluating Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)

Countering violent extremism (CVE) programmes and interventions have expanded across Europe, but the field faces significant challenges. CVE is a complex and relatively new phenomenon, with the term encompassing a wide range of interventions targeting different populations at various stages of radicalization. This complexity has led to a shortage of rigorous evaluations, and the few that exist vary widely in methodology and scope, making it impossible to draw reliable conclusions about CVE effectiveness. Academia currently lacks sufficient theoretical grounding to advise policymakers and practitioners on optimal approaches. This study applies and develops realistic evaluation and realist review methods to create an evaluation framework suited to the complexity of CVE programmes. The research produces a heuristic development of the realistic evaluation method for future CVE studies and identifies relevant contexts and mechanisms in CVE to inform policy development.