Skip to Main Content

Roots of Counterterrorism: Contemporary Wisdom from Dutch Intelligence

Online ISBN:
9780197786079
Print ISBN:
9780197786031
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Roots of Counterterrorism: Contemporary Wisdom from Dutch Intelligence

Constant Willem Hijzen
Constant Willem Hijzen
Affiliated researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University, the Netherlands
Find on
Published online:
24 October 2024
Published in print:
22 December 2024
Online ISBN:
9780197786079
Print ISBN:
9780197786031
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

It seems beyond doubt, since 9/11, that the main responsibility of intelligence and security services is to prevent ticking bombs from going off. The thing is, though, that the West has been confronted with international terrorism and domestic political violence throughout the 1970s as well. And although intelligence organizations countered terrorism, prevention did not become the name of the game. In a case study of the Netherlands, this book explores—based on unique primary sources and from a novel conceptual approach—how the threat of terrorism was looked upon and what kind of intelligence activities were carried out to contain or counter it. The book puts into focus how the rise of terrorism in the 1970s challenged the existing perceived core functions about intelligence. Based on the work of social geographer Ben Anderson, who investigates how interventions in the present are legitimated in the name of imagined (catastrophic) futures, it is analyzed how the Dutch domestic security service Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (BVD) scrutinized traces of terrorism between 1968 and 1978. It confronts these insights with the post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts. By doing so, the book paints a fascinating picture of core functions of intelligence more generally.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close