Acquiring and maintaining public support is frequently cited as an important requirement for governments fighting non-state actors. But how exactly can public support influence the course of counterterrorism campaigns and thereby contribute to an escalation or de-escalation of violence?

Professor Edwin Bakker, director of the Centre for Terrorism & Counterterrorism, released his new book “Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies: Comparing Theory and Practice”, published by Leiden University Press.

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

In this article, Tokdemir & Klein examine the strategic actions of governments against domestic terrorist groups and domestic terrorist groups’ reactions to such actions.

You can find more information on the Dutch webpage. Click on the “Nederlands” button above.

You can find more information on the Dutch webpage. Click on the “Nederlands” button above.

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

How do European Muslim men and women become involved in a violent jihadist struggle abroad?

Scholars have long debated the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. Some claim the organization supports terrorism, while others believe it is a positive force for democratization.

Could policies aimed at preventing radicalisation undermine the very trust and social cohesion they aim to strengthen?

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.

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.

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.

How do the pathways of Dutch converts to Islam involved in jihadist movements differ from those of Dutch converts who are not, in terms of their life prior to Islam, their conversion experience and the form of involvement with the Islamic community after conversion?

What does the daily life of those who travelled to Syria to join jihadist groups look like? Destination Syria, a new ISGA report, provides answers to this question

This article presents the findings of an explanatory study into the perceptions of Dutch Muslims in The Hague concerning pre-emptive counter-extremism and de-radicalisation policies.

Can conspiracy constructions explain for hatred of the system? And if so, should conspiracy constructions be considered to be a risk in terms of national security?

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'.

In 2012, the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and the Dutch Probation Service launched a reintegration project for offenders on probation or parole who were (suspected to be) involved in jihadist extremism or terrorism. The initiative's primary goal was to reduce the chance…

The Europa Institute has invited Dorjana Bojanovska from Macedonia to visit Leiden Law School to conduct her master thesis research from 6 March - 31 March 2017. Dorjana is a student at the Comparative Constitutional Law program at the Legal Studies Department of the Central European University. The…

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

What is the current relevance of the ethics of counterterrorism and what is the added value of ethics support within the practice of counterterrorism?

Facebook and Google are being pressured more and more to prevent terrorists from accessing and using their platform. Right now, they are developing software that uses artificial intelligence to remove unwanted content. Researchers from Leiden University explain for the NOS how this works, and whether…

On 8 March 2023 Helen Duffy, Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Leiden, published a monograph on Global Trends in Counter-terrorism and the Implications for Human Rights in Africa.

The research project ‘The History of National Security, 1945-present', is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Campus The Hague/Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH). The project will run until the summer of 2013, when we hope…

The study by Tahir Abbas and Liselotte Welten reveals a structural and nuanced understanding of how the question of Salafism in the Netherlands has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon and the types of threats that ought to give genuine concern to security, intelligence and policing services.

Is online radicalisation is an analytically useful concept when discussing contemporary cases of terrorism?

The recent terrorist attacks in Europe are presumably not just acts committed by individuals, but acts facilitated by larger jihadist networks. But how do such networks operate? Understanding their modus operandi can be useful knowledge to counter terrorist threats.

Why does one person radicalize to involvement in terrorist violence within a group-based context, while another engages in this form of violence alone?

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.

Terrorist groups adapt to environmental changes to maintain power. This project provides new insights by developing a theory of strategic target selection and using big data analytics and machine learning to test these hypotheses.

An interview with Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges David van Weel, and NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Clare Hutchinson

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…

Intelligence of the crowd, or in other words, intelligence of a large, random collective, exists mostly in social media platforms such as twitter. The collective does not comprise (at least not necessarily) experts on crises, just regular people mostly. Nevertheless, there is valuable intelligence to…

The Netherlands Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Security and Justice have requested the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism to complete a research project on cyber governance from a policy perspective. The results of this project will contribute to the deliverables of the fourth International…

This research sets out to answer the following questions:

After every attack, terrorism researchers are often asked the same question: who did it? Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, a researcher at Leiden University, doesn’t always have a ready-made answer.

Terrorism experts Daan Weggemans (Leiden University) and Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University) conducted one of the first scientific studies on the societal reintegration of jihadist former detainees. They showed that the reintegration process isn't without problems. Their conlusions are presented…

Examining mediation and moderation.

The Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) hosts two research journals and publishes the ISGA Reports series. Besides its own publications, researchers at ISGA also publish books or journal articles elsewhere. You can find all these external publications under Research output on the right.

How to minimalize the chance of recidivism for extremist prisoners.