This online advanced summer programme, organised together with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT), provides insight into the opportunities and challenges of various approaches to prevent, detect and respond to violent extremism.

This online advanced summer programme of Leiden University and ICCT focuses on the field of preventing, detecting and responding to violent extremism and gives insight in the opportunities and challenges of various approaches.

This book presents an understanding of the concept of Countering Violent Extremism from a critical terrorism studies perspective using case studies from different countries while examining the issues it raises.

This research paper seeks to examine the nature of the nexus between right-wing extremism and the military by surveying five potential consequences (i.e., problem areas) arising from the presence of right-wing extremists within the armed forces of twelve Western countries.

What are the mechanics of soft materials (e.g. foam, sand)?

Investigating neurobiological endophenotypes of Social Anxiety Disorder

In the track Governance of radicalism, extremism and terrorism you will be familiarised with the academic debate regarding these contested concepts.

This thesis presents pioneering work on the panchromatic emission of some of the most luminous galaxies in the early Universe: star forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei.

The design for the METIS instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is final. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has given the green light for production of all parts of the instrument. It is the first ELT instrument, designed and to be built under Dutch leadership, to formally pass the…

Research goal: To support the design of technologies (counter-measures and communication measures) for the prevention, interdiction and mitigation of lone actor extremist events (LOEEs), which are hard to anticipate, yet can be highly damaging to local and national communities and therefore must be…

With the recent rise and fall of IS, academics and policy makers around the world are expressing concerns about the fate of children of former foreign fighters. Will they follow in their parents’ footsteps? In this paper, Layla van Wieringen, Daan Weggemans and Marieke Liem argue that in light of this…

This paper critically compares seven widely used risk assessment tools for violent extremism, including the VERA-2R, the ERG 22+, the SQAT, the IR46, the RRAP, the Radar, and the VAF.

Are you thinking about studying Crisis and Security Management: Governance of radicalism, extremism and terrorism? Learn more and watch the videos.

On 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese surrender that also brought an end to the Second World War in Asia, Indonesia declared its independence. The declaration was not recognized by the Netherlands, which resorted to force in its attempt to take control of the inevitable process of decolonization.…

Study information

This article examines how the threat of terrorism has been addressed at the policy level through an analysis of a specific case in Mali.

On 12 mei 2020, Darryl Robinson defended 'Exploring Justice in Extreme Cases: Criminal Law Theory and International Criminal Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. C. Stahn.

A growing amount of literature is being devoted to interrogating gendered dynamics in both violent extremism and terrorism, contributing to the integration of international and feminist security. This includes how such dynamics can shape differences in the motivations and participation of women and…

In this thesis new methodologies are developed for the detection and systematic study of radio sources in the early universe. This allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies, the activity of supermassive black holes, and the final phase transition of our universe:…

Training a robot in a real-life environment is more or less impossible. Computer scientist and psychologist Roy de Kleijn switched to training in a simulated, virtual one instead. ‘You do have a reality gap, but the more precisely you train the robot, the better it is in practice.’ His inspiration:…

Global climate change is manifest by local-scale changes in precipitation and temperature patterns, including the frequency of extreme weather events (EWEs). EWEs are associated with a myriad range of adverse environmental and societal consequences, including negative impacts to agriculture and food…

In this article, Maria-Elena Kisyova, Yannick Veilleux-Lepage and Vanessa Newby shed some light on how a small but highly visible group of influencers are actively working to promote a dangerous far-right ideology.

In this article, Isabelle Frens, Jelle van Buuren and Edwin Bakker aim to understand anti-government protests by focusing on empty signifiers.

In an essay in Dutch magazine 'Vrij Nederland' Nikki Sterkenburg, external PhD candidate at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, discusses how radical and extreme right voices have become mainstream over the last twenty years. Sterkenburg brings up several reasons why the prevailing stigma…

The common image of extreme right activist is people wearing bomber jackets, flags and banners while shouting defiance during protest marches. Or that of the extremist internet trolls spreading racist ideologies while sitting home alone behind their computer screens. However, the line between extreme…

Doctors and pharmacists should take greater account of obesity when dosing medicines. The distribution in the body and the breakdown of a medicine can vary considerably in obese patients. This is stated by clinical pharmacologist Catherijne Knibbe in the Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

PhD-student Nikki Sterkenburg studies far-right extremist groups. But how does she get in touch with these groups? And what do you do if you stumble upon illegal activities? She explains in our podcast series (in Dutch).

A galaxy is already incredibly large, but it can get even bigger. Astronomer Reinout van Weeren investigates clusters of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the universe. For his research into the origins and evolution of these clusters, he obtained an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros.…

‘We want to say something very different from the norm. We are the radicals now.’ Tahir Abbas is lyric about the DRIVE project he will be leading from Leiden University in The Hague. This is a short introduction to the research that will be carried out in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the United…

A team led by Dr. Yannick Veilleux-Lepage (Institute of Security and Global Affairs) and Joris Larik (Leiden University College The Hague) have secured research funding from the Canadian Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces funded RWE-CAF Research Network.

This August, the second edition of the Advanced Summer Programme

In this article, Bart Schuurman and Sarah Louise Carthy conduct further research into the understanding of the causes of terrorism by assessing differences and similarities between left-, right- and jihadist extremists and terrorists. The article draws on the Analysen zum Terrorismus, one of the most…

In this publication, the authors explore the reality of accessing and interviewing hard-to-reach populations such as extremists and terrorists

Astronomer Alexander Mushtukov, currently working at the University of Amsterdam, received a Veni grant of 250,000 euro’s which he will execute in Leiden. Supervised by Simon Portegies Zwart, Mushtukov will use advanced simulations to understand the unknown physics in extremely bright neutron stars.

Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam is a neuroscientist at the Institute of Psychology and conducts research on the brains of families suffering from social anxiety disorder. Janna Marie's research has caught attention that led to media appearances.

On Monday 11 September, Matthew Hoye presented an early draft of a grant proposal on 'Remittance, Paradigms, and Extreme Cases' during a GTGC lunch seminars.

Moving an electron microscope of 2000 kg is a delicate challenge. The highly sensitive instrument needed to be moved to a new measurement hall, but even a tiny bump could damage it. After a few nerve-racking weeks of preparing the move and reinstalment, the researchers finally have a verdict: the instrument…

Intergenerational transmission refers to the complex and dynamic process with which values, ideas and behaviors are transmitted across generations. We are specifically interested in the intergenerational transmission of behaviors and beliefs that might result in harm to the individuals involved or society…

Every summer, Leiden University is the setting of dozens of summer schools in which professionals and students can receive extra training on a specific topic within a short space of time. We took a look at a summer programme on extremism. ‘A recruiter for al-Qaeda said that I could change the world.…

Director General of ESO, Tim de Zeeuw received President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria for a ceremony marking the first stone of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).

In this paper for Defence Strategic Communications, Alastair Reed and Jennifer Dowling seek to show the importance of historical narratives to propaganda by identifying and exploring five ways in which such narratives are exploited to reinforce the extremists' 'competitive system of meaning'.

The widely used pesticide thiacloprid can cause a large-scale decline in freshwater insects. This was discovered by researchers from the Living Lab in Leiden. For three months they counted the flying insects in the 36 ditches of the lab. Their research appeared in PNAS.

The illegal use of hand grenades has generated a lot of public interest over the last few years but very little is known about the nature and extent of these incidents. This research project is trying to fill that gap.

Physical chemist Rik Mom developed a revolutionary way to investigate catalysts in action in detail. For this work he received the distinction cum laude during his PhD defence on 29 June.

A professor from Leiden University has subjected various colleagues to intimidating and unacceptable behaviour for a longer period. These are the findings of an investigation carried out by the University’s independent Complaints Committee for Unacceptable Behaviour at the request of the Executive Board…