Marco de Swart
Marco de Swart is an Associate Fellow at ICCT. With a background in political science and development studies, Marco started his career at the Radboud University as a junior lecturer in Political Philosophy, in Dutch Development Aid, and in International Development Cooperation in 1998. He fulfilled several advisory and consultancy posts related to humanitarian and conflict affairs, governance & civil society issues, human rights, and popular campaigning & advocacy. In Rwanda, Marco worked as programme manager with Norwegian People’s Aid (Civil Society & Justice) and before joining ICCT, he was Oxfam Novib’s programme manager for Governance & Active Citizenship. Rule of law and human rights have always featured prominently in his work.
Marco’s international experience range from posts in Central-Africa (four years in Rwanda), East Africa (one year in Tanzania), North America (six months in Canada), to regular missions to several countries in Africa, the MENA region, Asia and the Caucasus.
Follow Marco de Swart on Twitter @mdeswart.
Photo: Studio Oostrum
The former self-declared caliphate of the Islamic State (IS), once the size of Britain, has collapsed. Its attractiveness to the global jihadi movement also became evident in Germany. The German Federal Domestic Intelligence Service (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) estimates that more than 1.050 Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs) have left Germany for Syria and Iraq of whom, to […]
This policy brief examines the role former extremists and former combatants have in countering violent extremism (CVE). ‘The former’ as a special category of actor in CVE activities, including in peacebuilding settings, has gained significant attention in recent years. Various organisations and governments have utilised formers in CVE activities yet it remains unclear if and […]
Hardi N. once said about himself “I am a believer, but not a radical“. That view was not shared by the AIVD (the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service) and the Dutch National Police. Hardi was arrested in late 2014 for attempting to travel to Syria and subsequently convicted. After serving a short prison sentence, […]