Mara Wesseling

Dr. Mara Wesseling is lead-researcher for a research project on Combating Terrorism Financingrequested by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice and the Ministry of Finance. This studyinvestigates the initiatives that have been taken by the different public actors (law enforcement,intelligence and judicial branch…) and private actors in regulated sectors (banks, financial sector…)to combat terrorism financing in the period of 2013-2016. It also assesses how these activities relateto the FATF recommendations and guidelines.

Dr. Mara Wesseling is lead-researcher for a research project on Combating Terrorism Financing requested by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice and the Ministry of Finance. This study investigates the initiatives that have been taken by the different public actors (law enforcement, intelligence and judicial branch…) and private actors in regulated sectors (banks, financial sector…) to combat terrorism financing in the period of 2013-2016. It also assesses how these activities relate to the FATF recommendations and guidelines.

Previously Ms. Wesseling wrote a PhD thesis on the European Fight Against Terrorism Financing (2008-2013) at the University of Amsterdam. Next, she was a post-doc researcher at Sciences PoParis and participated in the HowSAFE (How States Account for Failure in Europe) research project (2013-2016). Since January 2017, she founded WES Consultancy, which provides expertise in managing security challenges, with a focus on threat finance.

Given the overlap between the objectives of the policy study and the FOLLOW project, Ms. Wesseling acts as an associated member to the latter. It is expected that some coordination and exchange between both research projects will be mutually beneficial and enhance research outputs.