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The Fight Against Terrorism: A Key Global Objective for the EU?

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Global Power Europe - Vol. 2

Part of the book series: Global Power Shift ((GLOBAL))

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Abstract

The continued activities of Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist actors have been a top priority of international security policy over the last decade. Since 9/11, the EU attempted to develop a comprehensive counter-terrorism policy that reaches across functional and geographic boundaries. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of this dimension of the EU’s changing global role. The first part presents a brief historical introduction to the EU’s counter-terrorism cooperation since the 1970s. The second part surveys of three different strands of the EU’s current external counter-terrorism policy: (1) engagement in external conflicts that are likely to fan international terrorist activity, (2) support for the global counter-terrorist regime, (3) regional or transatlantic protection against terrorism. The third part assesses the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon on the EU’s external counter-terrorism policy and outlines current initiatives for reinforced security assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa. The chapter concludes that the EU experienced dynamic changes in matters of police and justice cooperation, but did not mobilize all its available instruments and resources to combat terrorism beyond its borders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Local ownership designates the ideal that organisational reforms or newly created state institutions, which arise out of international state-building activities, should reflect the interests of the local population and quickly become independent of external support. For an extensive critical discussion, see Donais (2008).

  2. 2.

    Over the following years, EU strategy documents continued to make the point that development remained dependent on the provision of security, which was mostly defined as the absence of armed conflict and other threats than terrorism, such as drug trafficking and organised crime (EU doc 15097/07, 9565/10).

  3. 3.

    As defined by the UN Security Council Resolution 1373. For the EU’s official response that list ongoing assistance and reform programmes under the new counter-terrorism frame, see http://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_1230_en.htm

  4. 4.

    Yet one also needs to consider that much US aid to Pakistan has been focused on direct military assistance, which can lead to counterproductive results in the fight against terrorism (Bapat 2011).

  5. 5.

    See Introduction.

  6. 6.

    At the occasion of a conference with policy-makers the author was briefly shown a classified meeting document that outlined discussions of the JAI-EX Committee with US representatives on the treatment of terrorist suspects. It was not clear, however, whether these consultations were of practical significance. This illustrates that further research and public information is needed to assess the importance of JAI-EX.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, Beim Schlump 83, 20144, Hamburg, Germany

    Raphael Bossong

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  1. Raphael Bossong
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Correspondence to Raphael Bossong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , European Union Center, University of Miami, Memorial Drive 1000, Coral Gables, 33146, Florida, USA

    Astrid Boening

  2. Center for Global Studies, Institute for Political Science, Bonn University, Walter-Flex Str. 3, Bonn, 53113, Germany

    Jan-Frederik Kremer

  3. , Chair for International Politcs, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, Bochum, 44780, Germany

    Aukje van Loon

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Bossong, R. (2013). The Fight Against Terrorism: A Key Global Objective for the EU?. In: Boening, A., Kremer, JF., van Loon, A. (eds) Global Power Europe - Vol. 2. Global Power Shift. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32416-1_2

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