ICCT Annual Conference 2019: Lessons from the Past, Dilemmas of the Present and Challenges for the Future: What is an 'effective' CT strategy

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) invites you to attend an ICCT Conference on:

Lessons from the Past, Dilemmas of the Present and Challenges for the Future

Location: T.M.C Asser Instituut Thursday 16 - Friday 17th May  R.J. Schimmelpennincklaan 20-22, 2517 JN Den Haag

In the aftermath of events such as 9/11 (US), 7/7 (UK), 13/11 (Paris) and similar others, states have sought to adapt their counter-terrorism toolkit to the threat of terrorism. Domestically, certain European states have engaged in what has been described as counter-terrorism ‘legislative fever’. Simultaneously, counter-terrorism and security strategies were fervently updated to respond more effectively to the threat of terrorism – both domestically and at regional level. The swiftness in adopting and/or updating counter-terrorism measures and strategies has, however, left limited time to engage in reflection and evaluation of what makes a counter-terrorism measure or strategy effective.

On 16 and 17 May 2019, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT – The Hague) engaged in such critical examination in a conference on ‘Lessons from the Past, Dilemmas of the Present and Challenges for the Future: What is an ‘Effective’ Counter-Terrorism Strategy?’.  Without trying to be all-inclusive, the event and the individual sessions aim at reflecting on various aspects of domestic and regional counter-terrorism policies, what lessons we can learn from them going forward and the bad practices to avoid for the present and future. Each individual session will feature 3 speakers and allow time for interactive discussions. Speakers from multi-disciplinary backgrounds will reflect on the following issues:

• Countering Extremism: Freedom of Speech vs. Incitement to Terrorism (regional ECHR and EU obligations);
• The Use of Immigration Powers such as Deprivation of Nationality in Counter-Terrorism;
• Lessons to be learnt from ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and the US War on Terror;
• The Importance of Databases and Quantitative Methods in Counter-Terrorism
• Identifying and Distinguishing between Radicalisation and Extremism;
• Countering the Enduring Issues in the Study of Terrorism;
• The Role of Communities and NGOs in CT and CVE;
• Combatting Extreme and Radical Narratives Online;

The Opening Keynote on ‘What is Terrorism? What is Extremism? – Lessons from the Past’ was provided by Professor Isabelle Duyvesteyn (Leiden University). The Closing Keynote will be provided by Renske van der Veer, Director of the International Centre of Counter-Terrorism (ICCT-The Hague).

Confirmed panel speakers include:

• Professor Emeritus Tom Hadden (Queen’s University Belfast)
• Professor Helen Duffy (Leiden University)
• Bart Schuurman (Leiden University / ICCT – The Hague)
• Devyani Prabhat (Bristol University)
• Laura van Waas (Tilburg University / Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion)
• Marloes van Noorloos (Tilburg University)
• Rumyana van Ark (Asser Institute / ICCT – The Hague)
• Annemarie van de Weert (Hogeschool Utrecht)
• Liesbeth van der Heide (Leiden University / ICCT – The Hague)
• Claire van Dyck (De Limberger / co-author of “Sultan en De Lokroep van de Jihad”)
• Tehmina Kazi (Restorative Justice Officer, Why me? Charity)
• Tanya Mehra, LLM (ICCT – The Hague)
• Faisal Khan, LLM (ICCT – The Hague)
• Reinier Bergema, (ICCT – The Hague)

The conference was fully booked. 

If you are a PhD candidate, a student, a national and international expert, a member of the security services, a policy maker or a practitioner currently working in the field of counter-terrorism or aiming to, this conference is an excellent opportunity to engage comprehensively and interactively with the evolving field of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism.

Read the draft programme.

Read the full event description