Working Worldwide for the Security of the Netherlands The IISS provides the strategic frameworks for the Netherlands’ international security approach,8 linked to specific policy choices to ensure the safety of Dutch nationals, the Netherlands and the Kingdom worldwide. This approach is founded on a number of basic principles. These include the realisation, expressed in the coalition agreement, that threats within and outside the Netherlands have become increasingly interconnected, the importance of a more anticipatory, preventive and integrated international security policy, specific Dutch expertise and added value, and alignment with international priorities, including those of NATO, the EU and the UN. 4. Security strategy: prevent, defend and strengthen The strategy (see figure 1) focuses on preventing insecurity wherever possible, and an effective approach to and modern self-defence against insecurity where necessary. Restoring and strengthening the foundations of our security – the international legal order and an effective multilateral system – are crucial in achieving this. Human security is central to our approach, founded on the interests of people within and outside the Netherlands. Civil freedoms, political inclusion and trustworthy institutions are central features of human security.9 Their absence is one of the main causes of instability, as current developments in Venezuela clearly show. 8. The IISS focuses on ‘why’ and ‘what’. The ‘how’ is outlined in policy and implementation documents.