Reinier Bergema

Reinier Bergema is a Research Fellow and Project Manager at the ICCT. Over the past five years, he worked at the interface of (actionable) research and policy for a wide variety of clients, including, but not limited to, the Netherlands’ Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands’ National Police, NATO, and Europol. He holds a dual Master’s degree in Political Science (International Relations) and Public Administration (Crisis and Security Management), both from Leiden University. His research interests include, inter alia, radicalization, and (jihadist) foreign fighters, and the terrorist threat across Europe.

From 2014 onwards, Reinier has conducted research on Dutch jihadist foreign fighters, travelling to Syria and Iraq since the violent escalation of the conflict in 2011, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. Part of this research involved the setup of a (quantitative) dataset, consisting of over 230 Dutch jihadists who remain(ed) in Syria and Iraq.

Over the years, he frequently commented and published on a variety of terrorism- and counterterrorism-related topics in different outlets, including Foreign Policy, The Independent, NRC, De Volkskrant, the International Peace Institute (IPI), Bellingcat, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Clingendael’s Planetary Security Initiative. In addition to his work at the ICCT, he is part of the editorial team of Perspectives on Terrorism and a member of the General Board of the JASON Institute. Prior to the ICCT, Reinier was a strategic analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a research assistant at Leiden University’s Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism.

Publications:

Gen. (ret.) Tom Middendorp & Reinier Bergema, The Warning Lights are Flashing Red. The Interplay between Climate Change and Violent Extremism in the Western Sahel. Planetary Security Initiative & International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (September 2019). https://bit.ly/35eaYIh

Uri Rosenthal & Reinier Bergema, “Terrorisme als concept”. In Edwin Bakker, Erwin R. Muller, Uri Rosenthal & Rob de Wijk (eds.), Terrorisme: Studies over Terrorisme en Terrorismebestrijding (2^nd edition). Deventer: Kluwer (January 2018)

Roel de Bont & Reinier Bergema, “Strijden op het pad van Allaah. Nederlandse Jihadisten in Syrië en Irak”. In Edwin Bakker, Erwin R. Muller, Uri Rosenthal & Rob de Wijk (eds.), Terrorisme: Studies over Terrorisme en Terrorismebestrijding (2^nd edition). Deventer: Kluwer (January 2018)

Reinier Bergema & Marion van San, “Waves of the Black Banner: An Exploratory Study on the Dutch Jihadist Foreign Fighter Contingent in Syria and Iraq”. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (November 2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1404004

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Reinier Bergema

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Selected publications9

The Use of Small Arms and Light Weapons by Terrorist Organisations as a Source of Finance

ICCT Situation Report: The Use of Small Arms & Light Weapons by Terrorist Organisations as a Source of Finance in West Africa and the Horn of Africa

ICCT Situation Report: The Use of Small Arms & Light Weapons by Terrorist Organisations as a Source of Finance in South and Southeast Asia

ICCT Situation Report: The Use of Small Arms & Light Weapons by Terrorist Organisations as a Source of Finance in the Middle East and North Africa

Rise O Muwahhid, Wherever You May Be: An Analysis of the Democratization of the Terrorist Threat in the West

Terrorism Threat Assessment 2018 – 2019

Terrorism in the Age of Tech

The Warning Signs are Flashing Red: The Interplay Between Climate Change and Violent Extremism in the Western Sahel

Global Security Pulse September 2018: The Crime-Terrorism Nexus