Terrorist attacks are not an end in themselves, but a means of creating unrest and fear. Terrorism policies and research should focus more on managing fear and social unrest.

This research paper was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. It was published by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague. Leiden University is one of the participating institutes in this publication and our researcher…

Few events have influenced our global order as intensely as the events of September 11, 2001.

This report examines the questions "What is the risk perception of the Dutch population regarding terrorist threat?" And "what are the possibilities for the Dutch government to communicate about terrorist threats and about (counter-) terrorism policy?"

In December 2014, Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs with the Australian National University’s Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, commenced a research project to assess how (temporary) military interventions can best prepare…

These three repors are part of a research project that assesses how military interventions can best prepare the ground for an effective long-term counter-terrorism policy. Three different cases have been studied, and they have each provided the input for the policy relevant recommendations that are…

This project aims to improve understanding of, and responses to, the phenomenon of lone actors through analysis of comprehensive data on cases from across Europe.

This book contextualizes the use of terror as part of wider movements of political contention, demonstrating that terroristic innovation occurs as part of wider historical processes rather than in a vacuum.

This article presents an in-depth evaluation of a specialized reintegration initiative within the Dutch Probation Service focused on individuals convicted or suspected of involvement in terrorism.

This research sets out to answer the following questions: "What is the risk perception of the Dutch population regarding terrorist threats?" and "What are the possibilities for the Dutch government to communicate about terrorist threats and counterterrorism policies?"

It is in the interest of all democracies for young people to learn the value of free debate, even on sensitive and potentially divisive issues like terrorism, argue Thorbjørn Jagland (secretary general of the Council of Europe), Sayeeda Warsi (UK parliamentarian), and Francesco Ragazzi (Institute of…

The book addresses the question “How and why do people become involved in European homegrown jihadism?

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the Islamic State's use of images taken by drones, drawing on a dataset of ISIS propaganda images from October 2016 to December 2018.

As terrorism scholars, we are intrigued by those who engage in violence. We study their motivations, tactics, ideology, organisational structures, and pathways to (de-)mobilisation, hoping to better understand terrorism and how we can counter it. Far less attention is paid to what happens after an attack…

The second and final report on the Netherlands‘ crime-terror nexus has analysed all fourteen profiles of individuals arrested in 2015 for offences of terrorism.

This paper investigates possible convergence of issue salience of terrorism among citizens within the European Union for ten jihadist attacks in the period 2015–2017 using Eurobarometer survey data.

On 15 March, the 28-year-old Australian right-wing extremist Brenton Tarrant committed a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand. Jelle van Buuren, Bart Schuurman, Daan Weggemans and Tahir Abbas all working at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) have been approached…

This collection includes six short policy-focused contributions exploring how legislation and policy on counter cyber terrorism unfold at the national level in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France, and at the regional level of the European Union.

The question of how military interventions can best transition to a long term counter-terrorism policy forms the core research question of three interlinked reports. This research project has been completed with support of NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme. Leiden University researchers…

In recent years, the use of primary data in terrorism research has increased. In order to maximise the benefits of this trend, we want to encourage terrorism scholars to implement open science practices more systematically. This article therefore presents different avenues towards open and reproducible…

The term “Lone Actor” has been applied to a variety of violent individuals who are thought to act out of ideological motivations using terrorist tactics.

Jelle van Buuren, assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), does not understand that Mark van Ostaijen puts away the communication after the attacks like: ‘It is a confused man, you can rest easy.’

Ragazzi, ‘Suspect community or suspect category?‘, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Bart Schuurman is a research Fellow at the International Centre for Counterterrorism (ICCT) and at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) in The Hague. He was interviewed by Abigail Esman of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) about his new book 'Becoming A European Homegrown Jihadist'.…

The ‘Community Resilience Fund’, a programme of the Canadian federal government, approved a research grant for Dr. Bart Schuurman of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

This article provides an in‐depth assessment of lone actor terrorists’ attack planning and preparation.

On 31 May, during a three-hour live broadcast on the Dutch online television channel Islaam.tv, 100,400 euros was pledged to the Belgian-Moroccan imam Tarik Ibn Ali.

The fall of the IS caliphate is coming closer. At the same time, the AIVD warned for an increase in the return of especially the hardened warriors. How should Europe handle this? The shrinking of freedoms will only feed terrorist organizations like IS.

‘It's right and proper that we have policies to prevent terrorism,' says Francesco Ragazzi, university lecturer in International Relations at Leiden's Institute of Political Science. 'But the way the policies are designed and implemented can have unintended consequences. For example, when teachers are…

Toch kan je volgens dr. Jelle van Buuren dader Tobias R. niet in een bepaald hokje plaatsen. Van Buuren is kenner van het rechts-extremisme en reageert in het Reformatorisch Dagblad op de passages van Tobias R.

Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, in conversation with the NOS, warns to remain alert despite the reduced threat level for terrorism.

As a result of two attacks in Germany and one attack in France within only one week, fears of new terrorist attacks in Europe have reignited. In France a radicalised police agent stabbed and killed four people. In Germany a man from Syria drove his car into a line of cars wounding sixteen people and…

Together with a group of researchers from TU Delft and Erasmus University, Leiden University have received a seed grant for conducting a project “Perceived Risk of Terrorism and its Implications for (Counter-Terrorism) Communication Strategies”.

After an terrorist attack, tough talk often follows. However, this is not the case with prime minister Arden in New-Zealand, says Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs to the NOS.

Lecture

The book “Becoming a European Homegrown Jihadist” of Dr. Bart Schuurman, Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), is published by Amsterdam University Press on 22 March 2018.

Academic research on terrorism is getting better all the time. This is the conclusion of university lecturer Bart Schuurman after studying 3,442 articles. He published his study in Terrorism and Political Violence.

At the winter conference of the Dutch Christian student union CSFR, Mark Dechesne, Associate Professor, spoke about the decline in terrorist violence in the Netherlands.

Most families were utterly overwhelmed when they found out that their son or daughter had suddenly left for Syria, that is what Daan Weggemans, Marieke van der Zwan and Marieke Liem observe in their research on family members of Dutch jihadists.

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to imagine warfare without unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. For instance, they have been deployed in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are the current laws of war adequate to address the use of drones? PhD candidate James Welch will defend his thesis on 21 March.

Preventing terrorism before it happens seems like an idea no one would disagree to. But is it possible? How do counter-radicalisation policies look like? And are there dangers of unintended consequences? Francesco Ragazzi, Assistant Professor at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, has…

Although Islamic State has largely been beaten, for now the Jihad scene in the Netherlands is more than alive. That is what professor Edwin Bakker (terrorism and counterterrorism) recently said in an interview in the Algemeen Dagblad.

On 28 December 2019, Dutch newspaper Trouw published an essay by Constant Hijzen, Assistant Professor Intelligence Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and the Institute for History. In the essay, he discusses two books on a new genre of espionage: the authors provide access into…

Marieke Liem, Associate Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), has been interviewed by Trouw about the opinion of the Dutch concerning the threat assessment: "The Dutch respond relatively sober to attacks in neighboring countries and the possible risks of a terrorist threa…