Peter Knoope

Peter Knoope is Director of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague (ICCT), co-founded by the Clingendael Institute. Until mid 2009, he was Deputy Director of the Policy and Strategy Department of the Dutch National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism (NCTb). The NCTb was established in 2005, following the terrorist attacks in Madrid of 11 March 2004 and the killing of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands, and is responsible for the development and coordination of the government wide counter-terrorism strategy in the Netherlands. He was involved in the development of the NCTb from its inception and was responsible for the coordination between the Dutch government’s national and international counter-terrorism policy. He is a career diplomat who has inter alia been posted as Head of Mission to Afghanistan. Prior to this posting, he headed the Humanitarian Aid section at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for the Dutch response to foreign crisis situations. Before taking up his position at the Humanitarian Aid section, he was spokesperson for the Minister for Development Cooperation. He has also worked in development cooperation and research programmes in Tanzania, Cameroon and Senegal.