Counter-terrorism in the EU’s external relations

Abstract

The renewed emphasis on national political boundaries across Europe would seem to go hand-inhand with a weaker external personality for the EU. However, there are several prominent examples of EU leadership that challenge this notion, from the December 2015 UN climate change agreement to common sanctions against Russia to a new Global Strategy. This paper examines a policy area that lies at the intersection of populist outrage and external engagement: counter-terrorism. In the wake of the 2015 and 2016 Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks, the EU has made significant strides in enhancing the external dimension of its counter-terrorism policies, particularly in terms of intelligence sharing, formal and informal diplomacy, and the internalexternal nexus of security. The article argues that major terrorist attacks in 2015-2016 have served as critical junctures of crisis, driving counter-terrorism policies forward and emphasizing the notion of European boundaries beyond any functionalist or securitization explanation.The renewed emphasis on national political boundaries across Europe in the second decade of the 21 st century would seem to go hand-in-hand with a weaker external personality for the EU, as several contributions to this special issue contend (Bellamy and Kröger this issue; Zielonka this issue). However, there are many prominent examples that defy this argument. The EU emerged as the leader in marshaling an ambitious agreement at the UN climate summit in Paris, COP21 (Torney and Cross forthcoming). It has strengthened its relationship with NATO, at the same time as collectively imposing a wide-ranging sanctions regime against Russia (Cross and Karolewski 2016). And it has stood strong in the face of Brexit, even releasing a new Global Strategy and advancing plans for a defense union just days after the referendum (Tocci 2016, Cross 2016). Despite growing voices in some sectors calling for the re-assertion of national political boundaries, I argue that European political boundaries vis-à-vis the outside world are actually becoming stronger. How is the EU able to continue its march towards "ever closer Union" in its external relations while grappling with numerous challenges to integration internally?This special issue understands political boundaries as "those lines of demarcation enforced by a political authority that affect agents' range of options in producing and accessing goods widely understood to be desirable for them in the pursuit of their respective goals." EU integration has fundamentally been about a process that increasingly strengthens the notion of European boundaries over time, especially in terms of political authority, in multiple ways. To address the question of how European political boundaries are getting stronger in terms of external relations, this article focuses on the policy area of counter-terrorism. In the wake of the 2015 and 2016 Da'esh-inspired terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the EU has made

Transatlantic security relations since the European security strategy: what role for the EU in its pursuit of strategic autonomy?

“…Since 2003, the EU has made use of this tool by initiating over 30 CSDP operations and related actions in support of them; in addition to numerous civilian CSDP missions, these have also involved the deployment of land-based military forces in the Balkans and Africa as well as the launch of maritime security operations off the Horn of Africa and in the Mediterranean. These operations will be discussed in more detail below; the critical point here is that these new EU operations, and their congruity with various related efforts in internal EU security affairs and development/humanitarian aid policy (Mounier 2009;Cross 2017), demonstrate that the transatlantic debate about security is no longer theoretical or rhetorical: as CSDP operations expanded in scope and complexity, the Europeans were increasingly forced to justify themselves not in terms of principled but largely passive opposition to some American policies, but in terms of their own leadership, effectiveness, values, and capacity for innovation and risk-taking regarding similar efforts.…”

The rising fear of terrorism and the emergence of a European security governance space: citizen perceptions and EU counterterrorism cooperation

“…Others (e.g. Kaunert 2015, 2017;Cross 2017;Monar 2007Monar , 2015 paint a more positive picture of the EU as an actor that has accomplished a lot following the major attacks in Madrid and London, especially in the development of bureaucratic bodies and the coordination of the competent national authorities of the member states. The building of capacities at the EU-level has clearly increased the EU's presence in the counter-terrorism realm, defined as 'the materialization and development of EU policies and their translation into national systems and the establishment of institutional actors with the necessary powers and resources to fulfil the objectives laid out in the official EU strategy documents' (Argomaniz, Bures, and Kaunert 2015, 195).…”

“…5 Subsequently, the EU established partnerships with countries in the vicinity, i.e. the Western Balkans, North Africa, the Middle-East and Turkey, which prioritize capacity-building and cooperation in the areas of terrorism, organized crime and cybercrime as interlinked threats with strong cross-border and external dimensions (Cross 2017;Kaunert 20098). In the realm of external and development policy, the Commission's proposal for the 2021-2027 multi-annual financial framework has allocated the most significant increases for security, migration control and counterterrorism programs (Tsourpas 2019).…”

Assessing the Expectations and Limitations of ASEAN-EU Counter-Terrorism Cooperation

“…EU's concern on this matter appear in "A Strategy for External Dimension of JHA: Global Freedom, Security and Justice," a document published in 2005. The document also mentions the 2002 Bali Bomb Tragedy as a reference to boost the cooperation between the EU and Southeast Asia (Cross, 2017).…”

“…In the wake of ISIS in 2011, the EU's response to terrorism was to strengthen its regional boundaries and establish itself as a manager of cooperation in CT with the extraregional entities (Cross, 2017). The EU was striving to address conflicts that resulted from the increasing level of radicalization and the rise of far-right political movements.…”