Limited Reach and Appeal in Kosovo

Those who use radical and extremist methods to achieve their political goals employ the most horrifying and inhumane ways to kill, terrorize, and punish people, and do so with a high level of resilience and transformative abilities. The skills and intimidation they utilize allow them to successfully recruit among communities that are marginalized, economically disempowered, and uneducated. They use organized crime networks, radical imams, contemporary propaganda tools such as social media, and false promises to gain trust – especially from young people, who have in one way or another been subject to discrimination, lack of opportunities, social immobility, and no access to quality education.

This is one part of the problem with terrorism. The other is ever-growing autocratic governance. Governments that have been unable to provide programs to address the trauma of past conflicts in countries in transitions and that are failing to deliver on the promises of democracy – good governance, jobs, quality education, health services and ability to travel freely – provide an opportunity for terrorist infiltration. Therefore, the engagement of the West with the Muslim world should go far beyond the narrow lens of radicalism and extremism in the Middle East. This is also happening in countries in the Balkans that are struggling to establish true accountable democratic institutions, where existing organized crime and corrupt networks are serving the needs of groups like the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) by facilitating recruitment and organizing human trafficking rings.