This article presents the findings of exploratory research into the origins of OSINT for which it discusses three case studies from, respectively, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.... Show moreThis article presents the findings of exploratory research into the origins of OSINT for which it discusses three case studies from, respectively, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. Many authors writing on open source intelligence assume that the first OSINT practices emerged at the eve of the Second World War with the establishment of the BBC Monitoring Services and the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service. Building on existing studies, which are supplemented with original archive research, this article demonstrates that OSINT has a much longer and richer history. Methodical efforts to collect and exploit information from publicly available sources to fulfil intelligence requirements are documented as early as halfway the 19th century in the United States and early 20th century in Europe. Show less
This article provides a reflection on the jihadist threat, the policies and actors that deal with this threat and the impact of jihadism and counterterrorism in Western Europe in the past twenty... Show moreThis article provides a reflection on the jihadist threat, the policies and actors that deal with this threat and the impact of jihadism and counterterrorism in Western Europe in the past twenty years. It describes how the threat, counterterrorism policies and their impact have developed over time and demonstrates how threat perceptions in society and the political arena have not always been aligned with the actual threat. There have been periods of disbalance between the threat and responses to it, leading to both overreactions and inflated threat descriptions and fear levels, as well as periods with limited attention that might have contributed to unpleasant surprises at a later stage. Against this backdrop, the article criticises the incident-driven approach to counterterrorism and warns against both overreactions as well as ‘jihadism fatigue’. Show less
In the aftermath of the First World War, British officials had difficulty understanding the elusive forces behind the Anatolian resistance movement. They anxiously assumed that Kemalists were being... Show moreIn the aftermath of the First World War, British officials had difficulty understanding the elusive forces behind the Anatolian resistance movement. They anxiously assumed that Kemalists were being controlled by the Unionist leaders in exile and that they were part of an international conspiracy. In this confusion, the fugitive Unionist leaders received disproportionate attention and credit in British intelligence reports, with critical consequences for their political sense-making and decision-making. I argue that the preconception of ‘Young Turks’ in general as well as assumptions about Unionist leaders’ alleged and actual activities after 1918 were crucial for British officialdom's policies towards the Anatolian resistance movement. Show less
Intelligence is generally collected and used in secret to inform internal audiences. Before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, the UK and US governments have deployed intelligence... Show moreIntelligence is generally collected and used in secret to inform internal audiences. Before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, the UK and US governments have deployed intelligence extensively to influence external audiences, both publicly and privately, regarding Russian intentions, capabilities and practices, and the consequences of Russian actions. While the scale, manner and initially pre-emptive nature of these disclosures represent a significant evolutionary step in how liberal-democratic governments use their intelligence assets, current practice has built upon historical precedents. This article examines why states choose to use intelligence – including fabricated intelligence – for influencing external audiences; the different methods they deploy for doing so; the gains and costs of publicising intelligence; and how the use of intelligence during the Russia–Ukraine conflict should be understood within broader historical and contemporary trends. The authors conclude that while liberal democracies’ use of intelligence in public is to be welcomed for its greater transparency, careful risk management will be needed if this approach is to continue. Show less
La guerre en Ukraine a propulsé les services de renseignement occidentaux sur le devant de la scène médiatique et souligné leur importance dans la lutte informationnelle. Lorsque les conditions le... Show moreLa guerre en Ukraine a propulsé les services de renseignement occidentaux sur le devant de la scène médiatique et souligné leur importance dans la lutte informationnelle. Lorsque les conditions le permettent, le renseignement peut être utilisé comme outil de communication publique afin de soutenir les stratégies adoptées par les décideurs politiques. Show less
"Onder faveur van ’t canon" VOC – Artillerie 1602-1796 studies the development and the VOC’s use of a policy that creates additional advantages for its own military means and opportunities on the... Show more"Onder faveur van ’t canon" VOC – Artillerie 1602-1796 studies the development and the VOC’s use of a policy that creates additional advantages for its own military means and opportunities on the one hand, and simultaneously weakens potential opponents on the other hand. This resulted in important advantages in terms of effectiveness and firepower for the VOC compared to local opponents. Because of this artificial balance, the VOC could economise the military budget without negatively impacting its own power. The policy is analysed by studying the most effective weapon: the artillery. The artillery was utmost complex in terms of management, organisation, administration, and required knowledge and skills. The policy was succesful, but had limitations: it could not be applied against contractor states and in areas where potent local states had access to the weapon’s market. Furthermore, the defense against European opponents during the 18th century became increasingly important. Although the VOC developed in its final days good concepts, the realisation of these concepts was could not be achieved by the VOC nor the Dutch Republic, as this would exceed the existent financial means. Show less
The complexity of an intelligence problem determines to a great extent the certainty that can be provided by intelligence and security services. This article will argue this deductively and... Show moreThe complexity of an intelligence problem determines to a great extent the certainty that can be provided by intelligence and security services. This article will argue this deductively and validate this claim using a set of intelligence reports produced by the Dutch Intelligence & Security Service (AIVD). A better understanding of how the level of complexity affects intelligence analysis is helpful for the further (academic) study of analysis methodologies, as well as for managing expectations of intelligence clients, and for informing the debates over legislation that affects intelligence and security services. Show less
Jambroes, T.; Jansen, L.M.C.; Ven, P.M. van den; Claassen, T.; Glennon, J.C.; Vermeiren, R.R.J.M.; ... ; Popma, A. 2018
Seeing another person’s face while that face and one’s own face are stroked synchronously or controlling a virtual face by moving one’s own induces the illusion that the other face has become a... Show moreSeeing another person’s face while that face and one’s own face are stroked synchronously or controlling a virtual face by moving one’s own induces the illusion that the other face has become a part of oneself—the enfacement effect. Here, we demonstrate that humans can enface even members of another species and that this enfacement promotes “feature migration” in terms of intelligence and emotional attribution from the representation of other to the representation of oneself, and vice versa. We presented participants with a virtual human face moving in or out of sync with their own face, and then morphed it into an ape face. Participants tended to perceive the ape face as their own in the sync condition, as indicated by body-ownership and inclusion-of-others-in-the-self ratings. More interestingly, synchrony also reduced performance in a fluid-intelligence task and increased the willingness to attribute emotions to apes. These observations, which fully replicated in another experiment, fit with the idea that self and other are represented in terms of feature codes, just like non-social events (as implied by the Theory of Event Coding), so that representational self–other overlap invites illusory conjunctions of features from one representation to the other. Show less
In conclusion, the results of the present studies show how schizotypal symptoms may develop following child psychiatric psychopathology and how these symptoms unfavorably influence a persons__... Show moreIn conclusion, the results of the present studies show how schizotypal symptoms may develop following child psychiatric psychopathology and how these symptoms unfavorably influence a persons__ quality of life. It is important for clinicians to be aware of the complex dynamics of psychopathology and the higher risk for adult schizotypal symptomatology following behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders at child and adolescent age. Show less
This thesis shows the final results of a longitudinal project where the same participants (12 to 15 yrs.) were followed for three consecutive years. The first objective of this study was to... Show moreThis thesis shows the final results of a longitudinal project where the same participants (12 to 15 yrs.) were followed for three consecutive years. The first objective of this study was to investigate the development of both quantity and quality of metacognitive skills. The second objective was to establish whether the development of metacognitive skills is intelligence-related or relatively intelligence-independent. Finally, the generality vs. domain-specificity of developing metacognitive skills was investigated. While thinking aloud, participants performed two different tasks representing two different domains: A text-studying task and a problem-solving task. Participants__ intellectual ability was assessed, as well as their metacognitive skills and learning performance for both domains separately. In summary, this thesis has shown that (1) Metacognitive skills do increase spontaneously in frequency and quality during young adolescence, albeit not continuously. The various subscales of metacognitive skillfulness do not develop at the same pace; (2) Metacognitive skills have their own contribution to the prediction of learning performance, on top of intellectual ability. The relation between intellectual ability and metacognitive skills as predictors of learning performance is not affected by development between 12 and 15 yrs.; (3) Around the age of 15 yrs. metacognitive skills become fully general. Show less
In this thesis the cognitive strengths and weaknesses have been examined. The results show impairment in advanced theory of mind. Furthermore, impairment was found in processing speed. The results... Show moreIn this thesis the cognitive strengths and weaknesses have been examined. The results show impairment in advanced theory of mind. Furthermore, impairment was found in processing speed. The results pointed to strengths in detailed information processing. No impairment was found in executive functioning Show less
This thesis describes the Leiden Artificial Reproductive Techniques Follow-up Project. In this project, the potential long-term effects of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were assessed in 5... Show moreThis thesis describes the Leiden Artificial Reproductive Techniques Follow-up Project. In this project, the potential long-term effects of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were assessed in 5 __ 8-year-old singleton children. ICSI is the method of artificial reproduction in which a sperm cel is injected into an oocyte using a microinjection pipette. The technique is mainly successful in overcoming male factor infertility. Concerns about the development and health of ICSI-children have existed since the introduction of the technique in 1992, because ICSI is more invasive than the more widespread technique of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). In this project, 87 ICSI-children born as a singleton were compared with 87 singletons born after IVF and 85 singletons born after natural conception at 5-8 years of age, on various parameters: neuromotor development, cognitive development, pregnancy, perinatal outcome, congenital malformations, general health, growth, medical care utilisation, behaviour, parenting stress, and child quality of life. Although the results remain inconclusive on some outcomes, the majority of concerns regarding development and health of ICSI-children can be dispelled up to 8 years of age, in particular when ICSI is compared to IVF. Show less
