Constant Willem Hijzen, "Roots of Counterterrorism: Contemporary Wisdom from Dutch Intelligence" (Oxford UP, 2024)

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast · Jun 10, 2025 · 59m

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…