More than ten years ago, the European Union established the EU Counter Terrorism Strategy. The aim of the strategy was to ‘’combat terrorism globally while respecting human rights, and make Europe safer, allowing its citizens to live in an area of freedom, security and justice’’ (Council of the European …

Terrorism and the threat of terrorist attacks is not a new phenomenon to Western Europe. The United Kingdom and its approach in confronting radical Islam heavily influences the approach of other EU countries, such as the Netherlands, take towards terrorism. Given the significant link between these two …

The main aim of this dissertation is to find answer to the central question of this thesis: What are the most effective measures to counter the spread of virtual Jihadism in the Netherlands? In order to investigate and give answer to the research question, research has been done by analysing existing …

This article discusses, from the local professional perspective, access to justice for person-specific interventions to prevent or counter (violent) extremism in Europe. Using a Dutch case study it focusses on legal protection for hand-tailored interferences that are part of a wider-ranging counter-terrorism …

An estimated 6,000 EU citizens have left their home country to join the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) in battle. The Netherlands has contributed approximately 260 foreign fighters to IS since 2012. Several attacks on European ground, such as Brussels and Paris, have been carried out by foreign …

Since the announcement of the establishment of the Islamic ‘caliphate’ in the Middle East on June 29 2014, the number of people leaving Western European countries to join the ISIS military has dramatically increased. It is estimated that over 1,430 French, around 700 British and at least 180 Dutch nationals …

This article describes the development of foreign fighters’ preparatory modes of operation between 2000 and 2013, based on an analysis of 17 closed police investigations and 21 semi-structured interviews with police investigators, public prosecutors, and lawyers. Through the use of grounded theory methods …

Research has shown that irregular migrants were disproportionally present in jihadi networks in the Netherlands between 2001 and 2005. Building on this study, by analysing files of closed criminal investigations and interviewing imams and personnel within asylum seeker centres and detention centres, …

In its past, terrorism has evolved from old terrorism into new, even more catastrophic terrorism. Today, hundreds or even thousands of people can become victim from one moment to the other, through which the fear for terrorist attacks has increased a lot lately. Next to that, Europe has become much more …

A refugee is a person who, for reasons of persecution (or fear hereto), is forced to leave his home and is outside of his home country. Although the great majority of the world's refugees find themselves in third world countries, also wealthier countries are dealing with considerable numbers of migrants …