“The most susceptible individuals in the most affected communities”: non-emotive lexicon, religious minorities and racial neoliberalism in EU counterterrorism narratives

Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) programmes emerged in Europe in the early 2000s and spread worldwide in recent years, becoming a major feature of international security strategies and a major source of funding for government agencies worldwide. The concepts of radicalisation and violent extremism allowed for the emergence of a new set of practices of surveillance and population control, based on anti-Muslim narratives and the targeting of religious and ethnic minorities. By examining official counterterrorism strategies and action plans published by the Council of the EU in the past twenty years, this article traces the Council’s discursive construction of the concepts of violent extremism and radicalisation, which western governments and international organisations have used to legitimise the surveillance of ethnic and religious minorities.