In June, Senior Researcher Dr. Elizabeth Yates and START Director William Braniff presented on the international white supremacist movement for an audience including Department of State, civil society and NATO representatives, hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Belgium.
“The embassies were very pleased with the event, and rated Dr. Yates and Director Braniff highly on helping the U.S. Embassy in Belgium pursue their mission goal on combatting racially or ethnically motivated terrorism (REMT),” said Dr. Jody Rose Platt of the U.S. Speaker Program.
The event was a part of the U.S. Speaker Program, an initiative funded by the State Department’s International Information Programs Bureau which aims to promote a global understanding of U.S. policies and institutions within their political, economic, social and cultural context.
“I think it is notable and appropriate that the audience for this timely event on REMT was so multidisciplinary,” Braniff said. “Marginalizing the threat from racial and ethnic supremacists is as much a problem for civil society and our diplomatic core as it is for law enforcement and NATO. Because these groups benefit from structural racism, polarizing politics, conspiracy theories boosted by state-level disinformation campaigns and international travel to foreign conflict zones, preventing the next mass casualty attack is just as likely to result from steps taken in the classroom, online, through public affairs officers or at the work place as it to result from our military and law enforcement activities. I’m glad the U.S. Speaker Program and the Department of State see the value in whole-of-society approaches to complex threats like terrorism.”