European Homeland Security

This book examines the processes and factors shaping the development of homeland security policies in the European Union (EU), within the wider context of European integration. The EU functions in a complex security environment, with perceived security threats from Islamist terrorists, migration and border security issues, and environmental problems. In order to deal with these, the EU has undertaken a number of actions, including the adoption of the European Security Strategy in 2003, the Information Management Strategy of 2009, and the Internal Security Strategy of 2010. However, despite such efforts to achieve a more concerted European action in the field of security, there are still many questions to be answered about whether the European approach is really a strategic one. European Homeland Security addresses two major debates in relation to the development of homeland security in Europe. First, it reflects on the absence of ‘homeland security’ in European political debate and its potential consequences. Second, it examines the significant policy developments in the EU that suggest the influence of homeland security ideas, notably through policy transfer from the United States. The book will be of great interest to students of European security and EU politics, terrorism and counter-terrorism, security studies and IR.

This volume addresses the need for the United States and Europe to transform their respective approaches to homeland security in ways that are more attuned to 21st century challenges. Effective homeland security may begin at home, but in an age of catastrophic terrorism no nation is home alone. If Europeans and Americans are to be safer than they are today, individual national efforts must be aligned with more effective transatlantic cooperation.

This major new study presents both conceptual and practical guidance at a crucial time when intellectual and practical efforts to protect against the new terrorism should move beyond a purely domestic focus. Creating an effective and integrated national homeland security effort is a significant challenge. Europe and the United States have reacted differently to the emergence of mass casualty terrorism, but must work together to cope with the diverse issue areas, sectors, professions, and relevant actors involved in such a broad-based concept. The authors suggest that Europe and the US have a lot to gain by coordinating more closely, and that the exchange of experience is crucial as we attempt to stay ahead of a learning enemy.

Developing common or complementary approaches to what Europeans call societal security and what Americans call homeland security is a major priority for the transatlantic community in 21st century. Five European country case studies are offered here, along with implications for the United States.

This book analyses the cooperation between the European Union and the United States on internal security and counter-terrorism since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In particular, four areas of cooperation are examined: customs and supply chain security; judicial cooperation (the mutual legal assistance and extradition agreements); law enforcement cooperation (the Europol-US agreements); and the EU-US agreements for the sharing of air passengers’ data (PNR agreements). These cases are analysed through a conceptual framework based on the theories of international regimes, with the data being drawn from an extensive documentary analysis of media sources collected through the 'Nexis' database, official documents, and from 13 semi-structured elite interviews with US and EU officials. The book argues that the EU and the US have established a transatlantic internal security regime based on shared principles, norms, rules, and interests. While at the beginning of this process the EU had a more reactive and passive stance at the later stages both the EU and the US were active in shaping the transatlantic political agenda and negotiations. The book demonstrates how the EU has had a much more proactive role in its relations with the US than has often been assumed in the current literature. This book will be of much interest to students of EU policy, foreign policy, international security and IR in general.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent attacks on European countries such as the United Kingdom and Spain have prompted both sides of the Atlantic to reinvigorate their respective efforts to ensure homeland security and combat terrorism. However, U.S. and European approaches to these issues differ. While the United States has embarked on a wholesale reorganization of its domestic security and border protection institutions, European countries have largely preferred to work within their existing institutional architectures to combat terrorism and respond to other security challenges and disasters, both natural and man-made. This report examines homeland security and counterterrorist measures in six selected European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. None of these European countries currently has a single ministry or department equivalent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In most of these countries, responsibility for different aspects of homeland security and counterterrorism is scattered across several ministries or different levels of government. Different countries maintain different priorities in spending for homeland security, but most have devoted increased funds over the last several years to intelligence and law enforcement efforts against terrorism. Funding for measures to strengthen transport security, improve emergency preparedness and response, counter chem-bio incidents, and protect critical national infrastructure are more difficult to determine and compare among the countries, given that responsibility for these various issues is often spread among the budgets of different government ministries. Some critics suggest that the Europeans have been slow to bolster domestic protection efforts beyond the law enforcement angle. Others contend that European governments have sought to integrate counterterrorism and preparedness programs into existing emergency management efforts, thereby providing greater flexibility to respond to a wide range of security challenges with often limited personnel and financial resources. Some U.S. policymakers and Members of Congress are taking an increasing interest in how European countries are managing homeland security issues and emergency preparedness and response, in light of both recent terrorist activity and Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005. In seeking to protect U.S. interests at home and abroad, many U.S. officials recognize that the actions or inaction of the European allies can affect U.S. domestic security, especially given the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which allows nationals of many European states to travel to the United States without a visa or other checks on their identities. Some experts suggest that greater U.S.-European cooperation in the field of homeland security is necessary in order to better guarantee security on both sides of the Atlantic. This report will not be updated. For more information, also see CRS Report RL31612, European Counterterrorist Efforts: Political Will and Diverse Responses in the First Year After September 11, coordinated by Paul Gallis.

Introduces the reader to a variety of overseas Homeland Security strategies, policies, and practices in order to present approaches to addressing homeland security challenges and inform students and practitioners This book educates those studying or involved in American Homeland Security on the policies and procedures set by other countries so that they can learn from foreign experiences and determine which overseas approaches may be applicable to improving US Homeland Security policy. The book is broken down into topical categories reflecting some of the major areas within the field of Homeland Security. Each chapter comprises a discussion of strategic policies followed by a set of countries in the context of the subset of Homeland Security addressed in that particular chapter. The book also delves into cybersecurity policy issues, an area that has been growing exponentially but was not touched on in the first edition. The new edition of Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons updates foreign laws, strategies, and policies while expanding the depth and range of the discussion to include additional overseas policies. Based on eleven countries procedures and nine homeland security dimensions, it covers: Counterterrorism Strategies, Laws and Institutions; Law Enforcement Institutions and Strategies; Immigration and Counter-Radicalization; The Role of the Military in Security and Support for Civil Authorities; Border Security, Naturalization, and Asylum Policies; Security Facilities, Cyber Networks, and Transportation; Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Response and Management and Crisis Communications; and Public Health Strategies and Institutions. New edition updates foreign strategies and policies and extends the scope of discussion of these topics Expanded approach for a wider range of students and practitioners exploring the homeland security policies of other countries Covers strategies and tactics to combat terrorism from a number of the world's democracies including: Great Britain, Israel, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia Chapters are organized topically rather than by country, thus allowing students and practitioners to easily compare policies and integrate the concepts presented into practice Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons, Second Edition is an excellent book for all scholars, students, and practitioners interested or involved in homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, criminal justice, counter-terrorism, public health, transportation security, border security, and cybersecurity.

European institutions are either loathed or underestimated. This book analyzes the role of EU institutions in the area of European internal security. From Justice and Home Affairs, this area has become more like an European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. In this process, the European Commission has demonstrably played the role of an "engine of integration" in areas such a counter-terrorism, policing, asylum, migration and border management. This book uses the framework of supranational policy entrepreuners (SPE), those who stand at the policy window in order to propose, lobby for and sell "their" policy proposal, and synthesizes it with insights from the literature on norm entrepreneurship. Because the idea of homeland security has been so controversial and difficult to approach due to its perceived links to the Bush administration, the body of literature on the subject is rather limited. In the case of internal security literature, most of the work has been done in the United States and focused mostly on the American context. Therefore, scholars and practitioners interested in European internal security are forced to build synergies and draw conclusions by themselves. Within the internal security and terrorism literature, the European dimension to internal security is absent. Most books so far focus on the USA, the UK or individual countries, but not the European Union. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners interested in European internal security, European integration, terrorism, security studies and international relations.

This volume serves as a prism through which the European Union's external relations and security can be assessed. Experts tackle strategic issues such as Russia's relationship with the West, the rise of China (with special reference to arms supplies), Iran"s nuclear program, and European homeland security against the background of global terrorism. On these issues and others, transatlantic relations continue to be more relevant than ever, with the United States and the EU intertwined in the world's tightest network of economic and societal relations. As the enlarging EU stretches to cover an expanding area of competence, its responses to these challenges affect not only its internal security but increasingly that of its neighbors and other powerful actors on the world stage.