The risk society, prevention of harm and terrorism – The accomplished social scientist Ulrich Beck famously wrote that human society had become a risk society. He theorised that modern society had become a risk society in the sense that it is increasingly occupied with debating, preventing and managing risks that it itself has produced. More recently Garland spoke of a culture of control, in which ‘protecting the public has become the dominant theme of penal policy.’ Other criminologists and legal experts have since then elaborated and built upon these theories. 9/11 is oft en seen as a pivotal moment in world history and in the history of (counter-)terrorism, as terrorist networks went global. Shortly aft er 9/11, Beck wrote an article in which he identified terrorism as one of three different global axes of confl ict in world risk society.5 Over 20 years later, terrorism is still considered to be a considerable problem that must be tackled. Fortunately, most governments seem to be succeeding fairly well in developing a counter-terrorism approach which has probably reduced the number of victims.

2. International and European context – As terrorism networks became more and more international, so did the fight against terrorism. Chiefl y under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), several terrorism-related conventions were negotiated in the second half of the 21st century. More recently, the UN Security Council issued several resolutions on combatting terrorism.