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In 2018, Jessica Trisko Darden wrote “Compounding Violent Extremism? When Efforts to Prevent Violence Backfire” where she argued that government-funded development programs intended to counter violent extremism contributed negatively to counter-extremism efforts. Given the continued nonsuccess of counter-extremism and counter-terrorism foreign aid programs, we invited Jessica back to reflect on her article.Read more below:Image: AU/UN IST photo/David MutuaIn your 2018 article, “Compounding Violent Extremism? When Efforts to Prevent Violence Backfire,” you highlight several of the ways some well-intended foreign assistance programs actually contribute to higher rates of support for violent extremism. How has the U.S. approach to these programs changed, if at all, since that time?The belief that foreign assistance could play an important role in counter-terrorism and counter-extremism efforts originated in the Bush administration but was developed fully under the Obama administration, which convened a White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism in 2015. Concerns about this approach were raised during the Trump administration, largely based on the inability of U.S. government-funded programs to demonstrate that they had any meaningful impact on violent extremism abroad. It was in this context that my original piece was written.Since then, the rhetoric has shifted under the Biden administration from the Obama era’s “preventing/countering violent extremism” to preventing conflict and promoting stability. This is a significantly broader goal than the original conceptualization. It moves the focus of efforts from the level of individuals to the level of countries and regions.The broader emphasis of the Biden administration aligns with the traditional approach of foreign assistance actors, who had difficulty tailoring their programs to narrower operational goals. However, its largely immeasurable outcomes make assessment of the success or failure of programs extremely difficult. What counts as “promoting stability” and would a country be doomed to instability without a particular U.S. foreign assistance-funded program? These are