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.

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…

Are terrorist suspects willing to reintegrate back into society? Can they reintegrate?

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

People who are arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack are at risk of becoming radicalised either during or after their detention. Whether or not to arrest someone requires careful consideration. At the end of the prison sentence, it is important to provide effective supervision of the reintegration…

This study focuses on increasing our understanding of the different pathways converts take during conversion to Islam.

Since 2012, thousands of individuals have traveled from Western countries to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. While much has been written about these individuals, only sparse attention has been paid to the social environment of these jihadist travelers and, more specific, the role of family members…

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

The group structure of Jihadist networks changes rapidly, which makes it difficult to monitor them. This is the finding of research by criminologist Jasper de Bie. PhD defence 14 April.

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…

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

Peter Grol and Edwin Bakker, professor of Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the University, presented their book ‘Dutch Jihadists’ for a large audience. The book tells individual stories of jihadists in Holland and of Syria-goers and should contribute to a better insight into their backgrounds and m…

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…

Research has shown that terrorist attacks in the US are more often committed by right-wing extremists than by islamitic extremists. However, news about attacks by right-wing extremists hardly ever reach the media. Jelle van Buuren tells the Dutch newspaper Trouw that right-wing extremists are at least…

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.

Compared to its European neighbouring countries, the Netherlands undertake relatively few attempts to bring back women and children from Iraq and Syria. De Roy van Zuijdewijn explains why on Dutch NPO 1 radio.

During an episode of Dutch television talk show PAUW on Monday 24 July, presenter Jeroen Pauw discussed the new threat assessment recently published by the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV). Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor Terrorism and Political Violence at Leiden…

The number of young Western women travelling abroad to join the

Edited by Michael Kowalski

What happens to children of extremist parents? Commissioned by the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) of the Ministry of Justice and Security, four ISGA researchers, Layla van Wieringen, Daan Weggemans, Katharina Krüsselmann and Marieke Liem, wrote a report on the nature and extent…

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.

In this article, Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Edwin Bakker provide a big picture reflection on two decades after 9/11 in Western Europe.

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?

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…

An exploratory study on the role of family members of those who joined jihadist groups

Away from the public eye, the court case in Turkey against the Dutch jihadist Reda N. came to a close this week. The verdict has far reaching implications for the case against Reda scheduled to appear in front of a Dutch court next week. Edwin Bakker, Professor Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the…

The 2012 crisis in Mali, where the state collapsed and terrorist groups took over the north, came as a surprise to many. Mali had been considered a poster-child for democracy and was judged as considerably more stable than its neighbors by leading quantitative indices of state fragility. This article…

From 2012 onwards the primary scholarly and media focus in regard to foreign fighters has been on the large number of Westerners joining jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. Yet, much less attention has been paid to another conflict in the ring around Europe that attracted foreign fighters: the Russo-Ukrainian…

When does radicalization not lead to terrorist attacks?

This project aims at recording and safeguarding parts of the intangible cultural heritage of the Dogon in central Mali. A major song cycle, the baja ni, forms an integral part of Dogon funeral traditions. The song cycle is attributed to Abirè, a blind Dogon poet/prophet, probably from the 19th c., who…

How to minimalize the chance of recidivism for extremist prisoners.

This article researches the public perception of terrorist attacks by measuring the importance the public assigns to attributes of terrorist attacks.

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.

With this grant the researchers seek to shed light on the factors which play a role in transmitting jihadist ideas, and explore possible ways to mitigate this transmission.

An international comparative study of the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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.

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

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.

Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, researcher and lecturer at ISGA, was interviewed by Deutsche Welle (DW) on the topic of career foreign fighters. This is also the topic of study in her latest publication.

There is something strange about all the comments relating to the Jihadist-movies that flood across the social media.

Bart Schuurman, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, discusses the development of the exchange of letters between Mohammed B. and ‘prisoner X’ and the usefulness of a separate terrorist department.

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'.…

On Monday 29 April, Liesbeth van der Heide, researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs of Leiden University, was a guest on the Dutch television programme ‘Nieuwsuur’. She reflected on the interview with Jason Walters, a former member of the Dutch Hofstad terrorist group. The ‘Hofstad…

For a certain period the municipality of The Hague collaborated with the Salafist Quba mosque. The reason for the collaboration was to keep an eye on for radicalised youngsters. But as the collaboration progressed, the mosque became a breeding ground for Jihadists.

The Hofstad group is known mainly because of Mohammed B., the murderer of Theo van Gogh. PhD candidate Bart Schuurman examined this Dutch jihadist group based on interviews and confidential police files. How and why did the group come about? What drove some of the group members to commit terrorist…

CTC researchers Bart Schuurman and Quirine Eijkman conducted a 2-year study for the Dutch National Police on the pre-attack behavior of several homegrown jihadist groups and individuals.

Jasper de Bie, who obtained his doctoral degree at the Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology and who is currently employed by the Ministry of Security and Justice, has been awarded an honourable third place in the international competition 'TRI Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation on Terrorism…

This book underscores the interplay between religion and politics (local and global) in the production, escalation, management, mitigation, and resolution of conflict.

Understanding the evolving landscape of extremism in the 21st century.

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.