What do ‘middle class’ terrorists tell us about the link between poverty and terrorism?

Abstract

Introduced in 2006, the Prevent workstream of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) has provided a focus for often heated debates about what drives people to support or take part in violent extremism and terrorism in the UK. Six months after the new Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition government announced an extensive review of Prevent, David Cameron used his speech to the Munich Security Conference 2011 [1]to set out his position in relation to these debates. He distanced himself from what he referred to as the ‘hard right’ and the ‘soft left’.