S4E03 Thijs Brocades Zaalberg - Universiteit Leiden

Our guest today is Netherlander ⁠Thijs Brocades Zaalberg⁠! Thijs is a University Lecturer at the Universiteit Leiden and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Military Sciences at the Netherlands Defense Academy in Breda. Before moving to Leiden, Thijs worked at the Netherlands Insitute of Military History in The Hague. He is currently the coordinator for the project Comparing Extreme Violence in the Wars of Decolonization, 1945-1962, at the Netherlands Insitute of Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Thijs earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Groningen, spent a year at Trinity College, Dublin, and then took his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Thijs also spent ten years as an officer in the Reserve of the Royal Netherlands Army.

Thijs is a specialist in colonial warfare, counterinsurgency, and peace operations. He is the editor, with Bart Luttikhuis, of Empire's Violent End: Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945-1962 (Cornell), and is author of Soldiers and Civil Power: Supporting or Substituting Civil Authorities in Modern Peace Operations (Amsterdam), coauthor with Arthur ten Cate of A Gentle Occupation Dutch Military Operations in Iraq, 2003-2005 (Leiden), and coauthor with Frances Gouda of American Visions of the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia: US Foreign Policy and Indonesian Nationalism (Amsterdam). He has also published over a dozen essays and articles in English and Dutch journals.

Join us for a fascinating chat with Thijs Zaalberg. We'll talk about his parents and grandparents' experience in the Second World War, his rebellious turn toward history as a career path, the Dutch military experience, Beck, The Bear, being a war diarist in Afghanistan, Grolsch, and some BBQ basics. We're on a roll with Season 4!

Rec.: 08/09/2023