Foto: Anders Svendsen
Terrorjegeren i Nössemark
A Norwegian activist is working just across the border in a tiny house, dedicating himself to understanding and preventing global conflict. Bjørn Ihler’s work focuses on mapping the world’s challenges and its darkest corners, driven by a personal experience with terrorism. The effort to counter violent extremism is gaining increased international attention as geopolitical instability rises.
Ihler, the founder and managing director of Revontulet, a technology company that identifies terror and other serious threats through advanced technology, established the firm in the United States in 2022 before relocating it to Halden, Norway. Halden Næringsutvikling reports that Ihler aims to foster expertise and a strong professional environment within the city.
His commitment stems from surviving the 2011 terror attack on Utøya, an event that profoundly changed his life and fueled his dedication to understanding terrorism and right-wing extremism. Ihler is now an internationally recognized expert in counter-terrorism and the prevention of radicalization. He concentrates on the dynamics within terror networks, both online and in physical spaces, and has contributed to the development of more comprehensive and cross-sectoral approaches to combating terrorism and violent extremism.
Revontulet currently serves two of the world’s largest social media companies as clients, and Ihler provided risk analyses to the city of Malmö in connection with the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024. According to Wikipedia, Ihler also chairs the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s Independent Advisory Committee.
Ihler is also a co-founder of the Khalifa Ihler Institute and was a founding member of the Extremely Together project through the Kofi Annan Foundation. He has written editorials for publications including The Guardian and Huffington Post on the topic of terrorism and has spoken at the Oslo Freedom Forum about his experiences and work. He was part of the 2022 Obama Foundation Leaders Europe programme.
In interviews, Ihler has stated his belief that Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the Utøya attack, should be treated humanely within the Norwegian prison system. He explained to BBC Radio 4 that “Breivik denied us all humanity and all human rights. But that does not ever make it right for us to deny him the same thing. If we do that, we follow the same logic as him I think.”
The work of Ihler and Revontulet highlights the growing need for innovative approaches to counter-terrorism in an increasingly interconnected world.
