First and foremost, the image of the #Syrianboy who survived a bombardment in Aleppo is emblematic for the human catastrophe of the civil war in Syria – akin Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old who drowned in the Mediterranean last year. But the image of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh has also revived the debate how audiences across the…
I am very excited that our book on Big Data Challenges is now published. This volume brings together an impressive range of academic and intelligence professional perspectives to interrogate the social, ethical and security upheavals in a world increasingly driven by data. Written in a clear and accessible style, it offers fresh insights to the deep…
De relatie tussen het Westen en Rusland is alles behalve hartelijk. Toch lijken zij in de Islamitische Staat een gemeenschappelijke vijand met ons te delen: is het niet mogelijk de handen in een te slaan? Of moeten wij niet op zijn minst Rusland zijn hartelijke gang laten gaan in diens strijd tegen IS, zeker nu…
Jamestown Foundation: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 19 In December 2014, a video testament emerged in which 19-year-old Sultan Berzel, from the Netherlands’ southern city of Maastricht, called on Muslims to make hijra (a religious migration) to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group. He delivered his message in a quiet voice and with a local Maastricht accent. The…
Toegegeven, het atoomakkoord met Iran is een historische overeenkomst. Het is te prijzen dat diplomatie voor even werd geprefereerd boven het haast traditionele wapengekletter in het Midden-Oosten. Qua symbolische waarde is de overeenkomst te vergelijken met het Camp David-akkoord tussen Egypte en Israël uit 1978. Wat dat betreft niets dan lof voor de betrokken partijen,…
Door een akkoord te sluiten met Iran jagen we onbewust de soennieten verder in de handen van groeperingen als IS en Al Qaida. Toegegeven, de nucleaire deal met Iran is een historische overeenkomst zoals er de laatste decennia maar weinig zijn gesloten in het Midden-Oosten. Qua symbolische waarde zeker vergelijkbaar met het Camp David-akkoord uit…
Riyadh Mohammed interviewed me for the The Fiscal Times and Yahoo. His piece discusses the recent successes by ISIS in the city of Ramadi. Almost a year after the fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, ISIS has captured Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, Anbar, where 1,300 American soldiers and Marines died during…
In this interview, Tim Goudriaan and I discuss Palestinian ICC Membership from a political perspective. We touch on the reasons for the Palestinians to join the ICC; the relationships between Fatah and Hamas on the issue; the effects for Palestinians on the local level; and offers expectations on how the situation may evolve in the…
Newsweek did an article on Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders for which I was interviewed too. I tried to explain the reporter a bit on his “successful” polarisation of Dutch society, how he manages to set the agenda on various issues including Islam, immigration and crime – and finally, his media antics. A brief look…
The Senate Report on the CIA’s use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques – or just plain torture – has shocked many. Despite the fact that much of these revelations where not new, it will still have an important legacy on global politics and counter-terrorism practices in the future. The report is an important document for several…
ISIS’ rise was seen as the ideal moment for the U.S. to realize its failure of non-intervention and unfold a strategy for Syria.
A Dutch Jabhat al Nusra (JAN) fighter who goes by the nom de guerre “Muhajiri Shaam” or “Abu Mohammed al Hollandi” has recently gained lots of traction in Dutch media. Following the US-coalition air-strikes on al JAN-strongholds on Monday, in which three Dutch Nusra fighters died, he uploaded a video on his Facebook page in…
