European Union and the fight against terrorism: a differentiated integration theory perspective
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European Union and the fight against terrorism: a differentiated integration theory perspective Oldrich Bures 1
& Sebastian
Bätz 1,2
Received: 23 August 2019 / Revised: 25 July 2020 / Accepted: 8 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Although many EU member states experienced large scale terrorist attacks and both national and EU policymakers have repeatedly acknowledged the need to tackle the apparent contradiction between borderless terrorism and national counterterrorism measures, a genuine supranational EU counterterrorism response has not emerged thus far. In this article, we explore why this has been the case. Via a set of proxy indicators, we operationalize and test three key variables derived from differentiated integration theory, which suggests that the lack of horizontal and vertical integration in the EU’s counterterrorism policy ought to be the result of high and asymmetric politicization, asymmetrical interdependence, and little preference convergence across EU member states. Our findings indicate that although all of these variables did influence integration in the first fifteen years of EU counterterrorism policy (2001–2016), only one variable (interdependence) acted exactly as expected by differentiated integration theory. Keywords European Union . Counterterrorism . Differentiated integration theory .
Politicization . Interdependence . Preference convergence
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-02000590-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Oldrich Bures [email protected]; [email protected] Sebastian Bätz [email protected]
1
Center for Security Studies, Metropolitan University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
2
Department of Security Studies Faculty of Social Sciences , Charles University , Prague, Czech Republic
O. Bures, S. Bätz
Introduction In this article, we use differentiated integration theory as a theoretical framework for interpreting the haphazard evolution of the EU counterterrorism policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although many EU member states experienced large-scale terrorist attacks and both national and EU policymakers have repeatedly acknowledged the need to tackle the apparent contradiction between borderless terrorism and national counterterrorism measures, a genuine supranational EU counterterrorism response has not emerged thus far. Albeit, the EU has attempted to bolster its nascent EU’s counterterrorism capabilities spanning across all pre-Lisbon pillars via a set of policy programs and strategy documents; adoption of new legal instruments and harmonization/updating of existing national legislation; convening of expert groups to share best practices; improving information exchange among national security agencies, boosting of the capacities of its agencies (in particular Europol and Eurojust), and by coordinating member states’ activities regarding prevention of radicalization and c
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