As we’ve seen in our previous units, any discussion of inter-cultural diversity, acceptance and tolerance must include the question of conflicts and radicalisation as one of the top challenges. In this unit, we’ll explore with our experts our respondents’ answers to the efficiency of various radicalisation-prevention mechanisms.

It bears repeating that education and youth programmes that foster youth-led dialogue initiatives were seen as “efficient” in near-equal percentages, at 81% and 85%, respectively, in Europeans and southern and eastern Mediterraneans. Nearly the same percentages support youth participation in public life.

Alpsalan Özerdem notes support for dialogue measures across all layers of society. He looks at age combined with efficiency responses, and concludes there is not much difference between European and southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. Whether young or older, measures focusing on young people – such as education and youth programmes to foster youth-led dialogue initiatives, and support of youth participation in public life – were considered to be ‘very efficient’.

Özerdem concludes that, although there is a general agreement on the efficiency of the measures suggested by the Survey, there is a need to tailor-make these measures to fit the specific realities, conditions and perceptions of communities directly affected by radicalisation.

Ricard Zapata-Barrero discusses migration and human mobility and notes that interculturalism can help generate some answers where a boundless multi-culturalism may have difficulties. He concludes that as a consequence, “there is a need for a policy whose main target is to encourage contact among people”. Here, “we can find the main space for the legitimatisation of interculturalism. This is why we can also celebrate the fact that the Anna Lindh Foundation’s 10-year strategy ‘Working Together Towards 2025’ adheres to this intercultural wave as an alternative to the extremist narrative that hits the reality of many societies in the Mediterranean today”.

Abdelrahman Aldaqqah sees that current regional policies focus on security and defence rather than dealing with root causes of radicalisation. He advocates for investing in youth and dialogue as a long-term solution in challenging this. He places a call to action within the Euro-Mediterranean collaboration framework to promote engagement between states and civil societies on both sides, in this way creating a zone of peace and stability founded on the principles of respect for the promotion of democracy and human rights.