Sadi Shanaah
PhD in Political Science (Aarhus University, 2019); MPhil in Contemporary European Studies (University of Cambridge, Pembroke College, 2008); BA in International and European Economic Studies (SUNY, New Paltz, 2006)
Profile
I am Research Fellow in the ERC/UKRI funded PEACERETURN project, which focuses on the study of peaceful voluntary return and durable solutions to displacement (PI: Professor Neophytos LoizidesLink opens in a new window).
In 2020-2024, I was Research Fellow in the "Neoliberal Terror: The Radicalisation of Social Policy in EuropeLink opens in a new window" project (ERC Starting Grant, PI: Professor Charlotte Heath-KellyLink opens in a new window). In the framework of the project, I examined structural drivers of P/CVE policies (preventing and countering violent extremism) with the help of an P/CVE index that I developed for 38 countries. I also investigated the historical evolution of P/CVE policies and their diffusion. I proposed a theoretical framework for understanding their variation and contestation between and within countries. In 2025, I published a co-authored book with Charlotte Heath-Kelly The Politics of Preventing Violent ExtremismLink opens in a new window with Oxford University Press (freely accessible).
My general research focus is on conflict, security, and political violence. I am interested in factors, mechanisms, and processes that could lead to or prevent political violence, mostly from the perspective of social psychology and social movement approaches. In particular, I am interested in how perceptions of global catastrophic risks and existential threats such as climate change impact political and social public attitudes and behaviour related to conflict and cooperation. I am also conducting research on Global Collapse Anticipation (the feeling that our global civilisation might collapse soon) and its socio-political impacts, also as a member of the Warwick Apocalypse Working Group - an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Warwick that explores various aspects of apocalyptic themes across different fields.
In my doctoral research, I examined factors that facilitate or hinder the engagement of British Muslims in countering Islamist extremism.
Before joining academia, I have held a number of positions in the public and NGO sectors in the Czech Republic. I was foreign affairs adviser to two cabinet ministers, head of the foreign affairs working group of the Czech Green Party, project coordinator and analyst in a think-tank Glopolis, and regional project coordinator at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. I also founded and managed Insaan, an NGO focused on Czech-Arab cultural dialogue. In the UK, I was a member of the Academic-Practitioner Counter Extremism Network (APCEN) established by the Commission for Countering Extremism (UK) in 2020-2023.
Publications (Peer-Reviewed)
Shanaah, S. (forthcoming). Soft Law: P/CVE programmes - the UK's Prevent programme, In S. MacDonald, J. Blackbourn and K. Vaughan (Eds.), Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Terrorism Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Shanaah, S. (forthcoming in December 2025). Manufacturing informants: The emotion work of the Prevent Duty training. In A. Aliverti, H. Carvalho, and A. Chamberlen (Eds.), The embodied state: Emotions, state power and social marginalisation. Routledge.
Heath-Kelly, C. & Shanaah, S. (2025). The Politics of Preventing Violent Extremism: Liberal Democracy, Civil Society, Radicalisation and Vulnerability. Oxford University Press.
Shanaah, S., Fritsche, I. & Osmundsen, M. (2024). The Effect of Climate Change Threat on Public Attitudes towards Ethnic and Religious Minorities and Climate Refugees. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 1-30.
Shanaah, S. (2023). Explaining the variation and contestation of P/CVE policies around the world: A public policy approach. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 1-26.
Shanaah, S., Fritsche, I. & Osmundsen, M. (2023). Support for Pro-Climate and Ecofascist Extremism: Correlates and Intersections. Democracy and Security, 1-23.
Shanaah, S. (2023). When democracy is deemed vulnerable: Preventing far-right extremism by curbing Roma “criminality and social pathologies” in the Czech Republic. In C. Heath-Kelly and B. Gruber (Eds.), Vulnerability: Governing the social through security politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Shanaah, S. & Heath-Kelly, C. (2022). What drives counter-extremism? The extent of P/CVE policies in the West and their structural correlates. Terrorism and Political Violence.
Heath-Kelly, C. & Shanaah, S. (2022). Rehabilitation within pre-crime interventions: The hybrid criminology of social crime prevention and countering violent extremism. Theoretical Criminology, 1-21.
Heath-Kelly, C. & Shanaah, S. (2022). The long history of prevention: Social defence, security, and anticipating future crimes in the era of ‘penal welfarism'. Theoretical Criminology, 1-20.
Satherly, N., Yogeeswaran, K., Osborne, D., Shanaah, S. & Sibley, C.G. (2021). Investigating the effects of right-wing terrorism on government satisfaction: A time course analysis of the 2019 Christchurch terror attack. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-14.
Shanaah, S., Yogeeswaran, K., Greaves, L., Bulbulia, J., Osborne, D., Afzali, U. & Sibley, C.G. (2021). Hate begets warmth? The impact of an anti-Muslim terrorist attack on public attitudes toward Muslims. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1-19.
Shanaah, S. (2021). Anti-Muslim discrimination and support for violent extremism: Evidence from five large-N surveys. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 1-21.
Shanaah, S. (2020). Demobilizing or activating? The effect of anti-Muslim discrimination on Muslims’ counter-extremism engagement. Social Problems, 1-19.
Shanaah, S. (2019). Alienation or cooperation? British Muslims’ attitudes to and engagement in counter-terrorism and counter-extremism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1-22.
Shanaah, S. (2019). What motivates Muslims to engage in counterextremism? The role of identity, efficacy, emotions, and morality. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-21.
Shanaah, S. & Lindekilde, L. (2019). Standing up and speaking out? British Muslims’ collective action against Islamist extremism. Democracy and Security, 1-22.