Dr Tina Wilchen Christensen

Dr Tina Wilchen Christensen is an Associate Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict research group at RUSI with expert knowledge of mentorship-based approaches to reintegration, radicalisation, risk assessment and multiagency work.

Tina is a social anthropologist with insight into individuals’ pathways into violent extremism and how the individual, through participation, learns to become an extremist, with a particular focus on the radical to the extreme right. She also has expert knowledge of how mentorship-based approaches can support individuals during an exit, the reintegration process, and the development of an alternative identity.

Her recent research has focused on effective methods in risk assessments, and on how variations in the multiagency approaches to prevent radicalisation and counter violent extremism shape the involved stakeholders applied logics, and their perceptions of the approach’s legitimacy and levels of mutual trust in the Nordic countries.

Tina has experience with international collaborations, including in the Horn of Africa, where she worked as Senior Mentorship Advisor for RUSI’s STRIVE II programme, which focused on preventing recruitment to violent extremist organisations in Kenya.

Over the years, Tina has disseminated her knowledge to a wide audience in lectures, seminars, and workshops. She is also the author of scientific articles, book chapters, reports, and teaching materials such as ‘The Mentorship Manual for Countering Violent Extremism in Kenya’. Among her latest work are chapters in ‘Former Extremists: Preventing and Countering Violence’ (Oxford University Press: 2023), and ‘When Trust is Essential - Civil Actors Role in Deradicalization and Disengagement Initiatives’, published as part of Routledge’s Handbook of Deradicalization in the Routledge Military and Security Studies list in 2020, among others.