HCSS Centre for Strategic Studies

Counterinsurgency and counterterrorism

(11/26/09)

What can we learn from counterinsurgency for the purposes of domestic counterterrorism? This question serves as the basis for an HCSS report commissioned by the Netherlands Coordinator for Counterterrorism, NCTb. Please access the report here (Dutch only).

HCSS holds that at a conceptual level a comparison can be made between the dynamics of counterinsurgency (COIN) and domestic efforts to deal with international jihadi terrorism. The Netherlands does not have a counterterrorism doctrine and this report offers a first exploration of translating military COIN concepts to the counterterrorism domain. From the COIN doctrines of the Netherlands, the United States, France and the United Kingdom sixteen core concepts have been distilled which are considered central to the development of a counterterrorism doctrine.

Furthermore, the report’s authors analyze the extent to which these concepts appear in fragmented Dutch counterterrorism policy and in relation to the so-called ‘Broad Approach’. HCSS concludes that a national counterterrorism doctrine is both absent and necessary. However, current policy and the tenets of the ‘Broad Approach’ offer a good starting point to develop a counterterrorism doctrine drawing on the central concepts derived from counterinsurgency thinking.