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Open research questions in Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

519 gap statements mined from Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,446 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence? See the ranked Social Science journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • If we fall back on emphasising that these women simply do not understand or are insufficiently attentive to what the labelling of VE is doing, this is to reproduce the colonial and patriarchal power structures that expose them to violence in the first place.

    Mapping the margins: A decolonial exploration of Kenyan women’s encounters with violent extremism · 2026 · DOI

  • Footnote3 The limited studies accounting for examine the temporal dynamics of such activity as an explanatory variable but neglect content-specific changes in communication.

    Mapping the Online Hard & Soft Recruitment Patterns of Nonviolent Extremists Online in the UK (2016-2021): A Longitudinal Analysis of Britain First, 5 Pillars and Earth First! · 2025 · DOI

  • Whether targeting mentalizing in the general population would translate into reduced extremist attitudes, however, remains to be tested in future research.

    Epistemic trust, mentalizing and extremist attitudes in a German community sample · 2026 · DOI

  • The aim of the study was to examine differences between these groups and whether expanding the remit of VFTAC to other LAGFV is warranted.

    A descriptive study of individuals accepted by a Fixated Threat Assessment Centre · 2026 · DOI

  • Moral considerations can play an important role in the terrorist disengagement process, but little is known about the function of moral identity and its reappraisal in terrorist rehabilitation programs.

    Moral Identity and Its Implications for Terrorist Rehabilitation · 2026 · DOI

  • Whether this update has been successful in consolidating the appeal of conservative Islam against alternative worldviews and lifestyles remains to be determined by further research.

    A Wave of Unbelief? Conservative Muslims and the Challenge of Ilḥād in the Post-2013 Arab World · 2025 · DOI

  • Future research is needed to study the actual presence and magnitude. First, generalizability of the current findings is limited.

    Understanding Unrest: Conspiracy Belief and Violent Radicalization Patterns in Young People During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands · 2025 · DOI

  • Many attacks exhibit features that could fit multiple labels, yet public labeling remains underexplored.

    Terrorism, Hate Crimes, and Other Forms of Mass Violence: Examining How the Public Labels Violence Through a Conjoint Experiment · 2026 · DOI

  • The specific concept of white supremacist extremist leadership remains understudied, with significant implications for counterterrorism strategies.

    Beyond “Leaderless Resistance”? Toward a Typology for White Supremacist Extremist Leadership · 2025 · DOI

  • Focusing on cell organization addresses the gap in the literature in understanding the internal dynamics of terrorist networks worldwide.

    Anatomy of Terrorist Cells: A Critical Examination and Identified Gaps in Current Research · 2025 · DOI

  • There is a gap in knowledge regarding the instructional validity of firearms guidance provided in right-wing extremist manifestos.

    “Always out-gun your enemy”: conventional firearms, right-wing extremism and the challenge to contemporary policing · 2025 · DOI

  • Findings reveal that credible, dynamic threat data is scarce, leading to reliance on historic event data to extrapolate future risks.

    Terrorism and cultural heritage: an unconventional threat assessment · 2025 · DOI

  • Yet, we have very limited knowledge about the various ways in which such conflicts are brought to a halt.

    No End in Sight? Trajectories of War Terminations in Islamist Armed Conflicts · 2024 · DOI

  • Yet, despite its significance in Indonesia’s terrorist network, violent extremism in Bima remains understudied.

    Violent Extremism in Bima, Indonesia: Radical Milieu and Peacebuilding Efforts · 2024 · DOI

  • Especially empirical studies on masculinity that are based on interviews with active or former jihadists are lacking.

    Jihad and Heroic Hypermasculinity – Recruitment Strategies, Battlefield Experiences, and Returning Home · 2024 · DOI

  • There is a gap in knowledge when it comes to jihadism and how it is associated with notions of masculinity.

    Jihad and Heroic Hypermasculinity – Recruitment Strategies, Battlefield Experiences, and Returning Home · 2024 · DOI

  • Yet, the factors that account for variation in American presidents' and their administrations' specific counterterrorism policy choices to influence target states' behavior remain underexplored.

    Carrot or stick, or both? Examining U.S. presidents' use of counterterrorism tools in Pakistan, 2001–2020 · 2024 · DOI

  • The gap in the literature is the lack of studies on the media representation of counter-terrorism efforts and their impact on public opinion and national security.

    Operation Sindoor : A Portrayal of Indian Media Representation Against Terrorism · 2026 · DOI

  • Statutory definitions of «extremism», «radicalization» and «non-violent extremism» in the legislation of multiple jurisdictions have been subject to sustained legal and academic critique on the grounds that they are insufficiently precise to provide fair notice to those subject to them, and sufficiently malleable to enable selective enforcement against disfavored groups (Fenwick and Phillipson, 2011; Walker, 2011).

    Between security and belonging: state policy on religious extremism, political values and the politics of identity · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior work on state-perpetrated genocides and mass atrocities is discussed, but the paper notes that less is known about NSA-perpetrated killings.

    Civilian Mass Killings Perpetrated by Nonstate Actors: Data Trends and Theoretical and Empirical Risk Factors · 2026 · DOI

  • This article suggests that without standardised terminology, working methods and training principles for intervention providers, impact, including success of interventions cannot be measured.

    Why do we not have successful deradicalisation programmes? Impact measuring struggles in European and North American programme interventions · 2026 · DOI

  • Though the consequences of this alliance are obvious – namely, the deterioration of the security situation and the sabotaging of the BRI in Balochistan – the causes of its formation remain inadequately understood.

    Terrorist alliance formation: the case of Islamic State and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Balochistan (Pakistan) · 2024 · DOI

  • Research on snipers, however, has remained largely limited to their strategic role in Western professional armed forces.

    Jihadist sniper culture: propagandising the ‘caliphate’ through the crosshair · 2024 · DOI

  • This article aims to help fill this gap, paying attention to insurrectionary anarchism, an understudied violent extremist tendency within the diverse anarchist galaxy.

    ‘I’m not a martyr, I’m a terrorist’: the Cospito affair and the rejection of martyrdom in insurrectionary anarchism · 2024 · DOI

  • This article aims to contribute to women’s radicalization and a gap in knowledge of ISIS women.

    Encounters with ISIS-affiliated women: radicalisation process, motivations, and their journey · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Whether targeting mentalizing in the general population would translate into reduced extremist attitudes, however, remains to be tested in future research (“Epistemic trust, mentalizing and extremist attitudes in a German community…”, 2026); (2) The aim of the study was to examine differences between these groups and whether expanding the remit of VFTAC to other LAGFV is warranted (“A descriptive study of individuals accepted by a Fixated Threat Assessment…”, 2026); (3) Moral considerations can play an important role in the terrorist disengagement process, but little is known about the function of moral identity and its reappraisal in terrorist rehabilitation programs (“Moral Identity and Its Implications for Terrorist Rehabilitation”, 2026); (4) Many attacks exhibit features that could fit multiple labels, yet public labeling remains underexplored (“Terrorism, Hate Crimes, and Other Forms of Mass Violence: Examining How the…”, 2026); (5) The gap in the literature is the lack of studies on the media representation of counter-terrorism efforts and their impact on public opinion and national security (“Operation Sindoor : A Portrayal of Indian Media Representation Against Terrorism”, 2026). 519 gap statements have been mined from Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,446 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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