Synergy of Games and Former Combatant’s Testimonies in PVE

Successful prevention programs must incorporate the essence of post-modern culture of a VUCA world: competition, comparison, reduction – not as simplification but as pronunciation – graspability, exaggeration as a mean of clarification, proximity and acceleration.

INSIDE OUT/Germany and Fighters for Peace/Libanon offer non-default solutions to questions of radicalization and political education by using simulations that adapt digital gamification lifestyles and combine it with authentic testimonies of former combatants of the Lebanese civil war.

The joint program of best practice projects – founded by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen – was carried out in Libanon as a post conflict country and then transferred to Germany. In both countries the same program was applied with similar success: a highly attentive audience of youth open for discussion about the international context of radicalization, universal mechanisms of radicalization and tools to enhance critical thinking.

The speech outlines methods of games and testimonies as complementary tools and suggests innovative ways in PVE that transfer digital habits of youth into offline to generate high buy-in within the target group. Smart Prevention is thus understood as the capacity to understand digital behavior and transfer it into credible, effective offline programs that can be translated and multiplied internationall