This publication explores the drivers of violent extremism (VE), with special reference to the Muslim world in the past three decades. This publication's primary objectives are to summarize what we know, and what we do not know, about the drivers of violent Islamist extremism (VIE); to pinpoint recurrent drivers across a wide variety of countries, so as to clue the analyst confronted with a particular situation to some of the potentially relevant dynamics and factors; and to identify some of the most common misconceptions or pitfalls in the study of VIE, so as to avoid potentially counterproductive approaches when designing development assistance programs with a counter-extremism component. This Guide does not discuss programmatic implications -- which, for reasons of space, will be developed in a separate, stand-alone document.
