ABSTRACT
It is clear that violent extremists and terrorists have tried to exploit the pandemic to their advantage since the outbreak began. However, it is not readily apparent that they have been particularly successful and public commentary on this issue has generally suffered from failing to give due consideration to conflicting information; ignoring existing, long-term trends and alternative, explanatory factors; conflating correlation with causation; relying too heavily on theoretically-driven inferences and making assumptions beyond the available data. This chapter aims to reassess the various assertions that have been made with a view to offering a more balanced threat assessment, beginning with an examination of terrorist recruitment efforts during the pandemic, followed by fundraising, health-related governance and efforts to conduct attacks. This is complemented with an analysis of the impact on counter-terrorism, followed by the summary and conclusion.
