LAUSR

ABSTRACT Definitional impasse over the issue of violent extremism has adversely affected the scholarly endeavours to develop a systematic understanding of the threat and policy interventions to counter the phenomenon in its violent and non-violent manifestations. In the absence of clearly defined concepts including ‘radicalisation’, much of the Counter-Terrorism Studies (CTS) research remains ‘subjective’ and politically expedient. This article contributes to the debate on ‘who is radical?’ in the context of Pakistan and ‘how social concepts like radicalisation can be quantified for meaningful scaling of radicalisation and deradicalization?’. The survey of six public sector universities of Islamabad with secular reputation identifies how university youth is vulnerable to radicalism and stresses the need for launching an effective counter-radicalisation campaigns on the university campuses.