CTC Sentinel – June 2022: Enduring Extremist Threats

The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point has published its Sentinel magazine for June 2022. This issue focuses on the continuing threat of violent extremist organizations from around the world, with the featured analysis articles examining the potential foreign fighter threat related to the Russia-Ukraine War.

The two featured analysis articles, as noted above, examine the foreign fighter issue stemming from the Ukraine conflict and the evolving links to far-right extremism of actors on both sides of the war. The first article, A Trickle, Not a Flood: The Limited 2022 Far-Right Foreign Fighter Mobilization to Ukraine, argues that unlike in 2014, “the 2022 conflict has, for the most part, not energized Western right-wing extremists, nor persuaded them to travel.” It continues, “In what is for Ukrainians a war for national survival and a fight to secure a Western democratic future for the country, the allure of the far-right in Ukraine has dimmed … All this means that while Western governments should keep a watchful eye on foreign fighter flows to Ukraine, they must also counter Russian disinformation efforts that massively inflate the presence of right-wing extremists on the Ukrainian side.” The other featured analytic article, External Impacts and the Extremism Question in the War in Ukraine: Considerations for Practitioners, examines key concerns and questions about the conflict in Ukraine that are relevant to counterterrorism practitioners.

Additionally, the issue’s feature article evaluates the spring 2022 terror wave in Israel and considers lessons that counterterrorism practitioners should take away. Another article analyzes the impact of the Russian private military company Wagner Group’s increasing activities in Africa. The last article examines the growing threat to Central Africa from the recent creation of the Islamic State branch in the Congo. Access the full issue below.