Countering Violent Extremism in the U.S. Military
This RAND report asks how civilian terrorism prevention and CVE frameworks might be adapted for the Department of Defense. The authors organize interventions by phase: early-phase efforts like online messaging and community resilience for vulnerable populations; middle-phase efforts like referral promotion and law enforcement training for those already radicalizing; and late-phase efforts like prison-based mental health care for those planning or carrying out violence.
Several translate reasonably well to a military context—inoculation warnings, media literacy, online ad outreach, attitude monitoring on DoD extremism policies, off-ramping interventions, and military law enforcement training. The authors recommend DoD adopt these programs, measure the prevalence of extremism in the force, build a clearer picture of how it manifests inside units, and sustain a research stream to design and evaluate military-tailored interventions.