The Role of Families and Civil Society in Detecting Radicalisation and Promoting Disengagement from Violent Extremism Michele Grossman The role of families and broader civil society networks and resources has increasingly been hailed as a cornerstone of efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE). 1 This approach is part of a broader conceptu- alisation of P/CVE as the strategic mobilisation of a range of “soft power” initiatives designed to pre-empt or complement more security-oriented counter-terrorism frameworks by policing and security agencies that aim to disrupt, interdict and destabilise terrorist networks and activities. This in turn reflects the current emphasis in international CVE policy and thinking on not only of “whole of government” but also “whole of society” efforts, 2 both to identify and act on early warning signs of radicali- sation to violence at the micro-level of families and social networks, and also to address pre-emptively some of the enabling conditions that erode social cohesion and community resilience, leaving people vulnerable to * This paper was submitted on 4 July 2018. 1 Global Counterterrorism Forum (2016) “The role of families in preventing and countering violent extremism: Strategic recommendations and programming options”, https://www.thegctf. org/Portals/1/Documents/Toolkit-documents/English-The-Role-of-Familes-in-PCVE.pdf; The Commonwealth (2017) Supporting Families in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE), http://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/fles/inline/ComSec%20CVE%20and%20 Families%20Presentation.pdf. 2 Rosand, E. (2017) “Fixing CVE in the United States requires more than just a name change”, Brookings Institution (“Order from Chaos” Blog), https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from- chaos/2017/02/16/fxing-cve-in-the-united-states-requires-more-than-just-a-name-change/; Levitt, M. (2017) Recent Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism: National Practices in Countering Violent Extremism, Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), United Nations, https:// www.un.org/sc/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/8-Statement-as-delivered-by-Mr.-Matthew- Levitt-The-Washington-Institute.pdf.