Javier Argomaniz - The EU and Counter-Terrorism: Politics, Polity and Policies After 9/11

This book offers a theoretically informed analysis of how coherently the European Union fights terrorism in the post-9/11 era.

Few studies have looked at how the European Union has transformed into a relevant international anti-terrorist actor. Yet, as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London, the European Union has become increasingly active in the field of counter-terrorism. It has acted to coordinate member states policies, to harmonise national legislation and even to support operational work conducted by national authorities. The EUs reaction to the threat of transnational terrorism has been complex and multidimensional, ranging from the exchange of information between police and intelligence agencies to judicial cooperation, and from infrastructure protection to the fight against terrorist recruitment and financing. This book offers a comprehensive empirical account of the polity, policy and politics of EU counter-terrorism, based on an analysis of academic literature, official documents, and about 50 interviews with policy-makers, experts and practitioners carried out at EU institutions (i.e. Commission, Council, Eurojust, Europol), Permanent Representations of the EU Member States and national capitals.

The book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism, EU politics, security studies and IR in general.

Javier Argomaniz is a member of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at the University of St Andrews. He has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Nottingham.

Contemporary Terrorism Studies

Understanding Terrorist Innovation

Technology, tactics and global trends

Adam Dolnik

The Strategy of Terrorism

How it works, why it fails

Peter Neumann and M.L.R. Smith

Female Terrorism and Militancy

Agency, utility, and organization

Edited by Cindy D. Ness

Women and Terrorism

Female activity in domestic and international terror groups

Margaret Gonzalez- Perez

The Psychology of Strategic Terrorism

Public and government responses to attack

Ben Sheppard

The De- Radicalization of Jihadists

Transforming armed Islamist movements

Omar Ashour

Targeting Terrorist Financing

International cooperation and new regimes

Arabinda Acharya

Managing Terrorism and Insurgency

Regeneration, recruitment and attrition

Cameron I. Crouch

Religion and Political Violence

Sacred protest in the modern world

Jennifer L. Jefferis

International Terrorism Post- 9/11

Comparative dynamics and responses

Edited by Asaf Siniver

Talking to Terrorists

Concessions and the renunciation of violence

Carolin Goerzig

Freedom and Terror

Reason and unreason in politics

Abraham Kaplan and Gabriel Weimann

Evaluating Counterterrorism Performance

A comparative study

Beatrice de Graaf

The EU and Counter- Terrorism

Politics, polity and policies after 9/11

Javier Argomaniz

First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2011 Javier Argomaniz

The right of Javier Argomaniz to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-0-415-56525-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-86170-7 (ebk)

As a reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London, the European Union (EU) has become increasingly active in the field of counter-terrorism. It has acted to coordinate member states policies, to harmonise national legislation and even to support operational work conducted by national authorities. The Unions response to the threat of transnational terrorism has been complex and multidimensional, ranging from the exchange of information between police and intelligence agencies to judicial cooperation and from infrastructure protection to the fight against terrorist recruitment and financing. The growing importance of joint EU policies in counter-terrorism merits a comparable increase in academic interest. This book aims precisely to contribute towards this purpose by offering a comprehensive account of the post-9/11 EU response to transnational terrorism.

An enduring debate pervading research on European Union counter-terrorism since 9/11 has been devoted to the extent to which the European response has developed in an efficient, proportionate and holistic manner. Contributions to this question have centred on the problem-solving capacity of the Unions institutional framework and the process of advocating, formulating, deciding and implementing policies. Since matters of consistency have significant implications for the effectiveness and credibility of the Union as a counter-terror actor and the output legitimacy of its policies, it is noticeable that these issues have yet to receive the attention they clearly merit.

Most EU literature on the question of consistency has so far circumscribed to a lively debate in the foreign policy arena regarding the challenges to policy coherence emerging from the development of an increasingly complex institutional structure. becomes a goal and a challenge, due to the need to close the gap between the intergovernmental and communitarised decision-making procedures. Counter-terrorism, with its implicit cross-sectoral pressures, constitutes a highly relevant case study.

It is the aim of this work to investigate the question of consistency in the field of counter-terrorism by including in the analysis the interrelationship between this question and the process of institutionalisation of this policy space. To do so it has put into practice a qualitative methodology based on the triangulation of interviews, policy documents and secondary literature. The study of official EU documents has been complemented with documentary analysis of news articles, academic papers, think-tank policy documents, national parliamentary reports and non-government organisation (NGO) publications. Information from the official documents has been supplemented with more than 40 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with European and national authorities officials, policy-makers and practitioners. Interviewees belonged to a wide variety of managerial levels, from desk officers to Directorate General (DG) directors, resulting in a diverse sample that included career politicians, civil servants and public administrators. These served to provide in-depth input on informal coordination processes, the functioning of formal structures, the impact of institutional changes and other relevant matters. As importantly, they gave the author the opportunity to hear in the actors own voice rather than in the terminology of the organisation about the obstacles and problems to cooperation that exist within the EUs institutional framework and between the EU and national authorities. Individual interviews have been crucial in order to get beyond the rhetoric that pervaded the official communications on this issue.