Terrorism, Extremism, and the 2024 Elections

Introduction

The global scale and schedule of elections taking place in 2024 has the ability to profoundly shape and reshape political, economic, and social dynamics at the global, national, and local levels. Expansive and diverse factors related to global elections contribute to the landscape for terrorism and extremism, increasing threats to security and liberty, and to the structures and systems that support democratic institutions and the peaceful transfer of power.

Some actors will seek to exert their power and influence through government systems, bending their processes and undermining their core values to legitimize extremist goals, while others will reject these systems altogether, focusing instead on their complete destruction and demise. Some will look to advance the progress of their own activity within modern society, while others attempt to return to a previous time in their country’s history, or at least as they nostalgically envision that past. No matter the intention or the method, all will continue to embrace modern and emerging technologies to advance their interests.

At the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC), our mission is to drive change in pursuit of a more just world by advancing education, research, and analysis across the critical domains of domestic extremism, transnational emerging threats, and online trust and safety. Our ongoing work reveals that longstanding ideologies, narratives, and tactics reemerge in the context of 2024, reinvigorated by current events to harness and even weaponize people’s beliefs, perspectives, prejudices, fears, and frustrations for a particular objective. 

In this piece, CTEC’s Directors and Senior Research Fellows share key insights into the Center’s ongoing research and analysis across a range of dynamics and activities related to this year’s elections, including impacts on terrorism and extremism. We’ll first provide insights on legacy dynamics for how extremism and terrorism emerge and advance before delivering more detailed assessments on what is unfolding today. While each member of the senior leadership team’s contribution reflects a core focus area of their current work, CTEC continues to rigorously study terrorist and extremist activity more broadly.

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