The high representative’s role in EU countering terrorism: policy entrepreneurship and thick, thin and global Europe

Abstract

This article examines the role of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR) in the counter terrorism agenda and how it has been whittled according to the multiplicity and complexity of the several terrorism related crises in Europe, from Javier Solana to Federica Mogherini, following this special issue four faces taxonomy of Europe. It addresses how the different HRs explored terrorism as an existential threat and assesses their performance following Kingdon's policy entrepreneurship framework and Mintrom's research on policy entrepreneurship. It aspires to understand the hybrid nature and performance of the HRs as an institutional figure within the four faces of Europe framework and how the EU's complex institutional structure stretches policy boundaries and compels the use of different decision-making mechanisms to deal with domestic, external and foreign components of counterterrorism according to different materialisations of Europe's Self and Others.