What is European counterterrorism like and how did it evolve following the terrorism wave of 2015? Find out in TFA’s first issue on the state of counterterrorism on the Old Continent!
It has been about a year since TFA went online. We spent that year producing over fifty articles on various topics and regions. We also spent a lot of time thinking about the future of the magazine, starting with its format. What you have here in front of you is the result of internal discussions and advices from professors, journalists and friends who have been kind enough to help us with this project. On that regard, we would like to particularly thank Dean Starkman and Vivian Walker from the Central European University (CEU), for sitting down with us to discuss our project…
…and even pay our coffees!
TFA will now offer you online what most specialized printed magazines propose in paper shops, that is, in-depth security analyses articulated around a specific theme. For this first issue, we are kicking off with the state of counterterrorism in Europe.
If terrorism was brought under an unprecedented spotlight in 2001 with Al-Qaeda’s attacks on American soil, Europe realized that it would not be spared by the phenomenon following the rise of the Islamic State and a wave of terrorist attacks that has shaken the Old Continent since 2015. European leaders, scholars, security analysts and everyday citizens, all came up with their own opinions on the phenomenon, with their own “solutions” to deal with it. This is how counterterrorism became a central element of the public debate in Europe.
This issue was designed to shed light on numerous aspects of European counterterrorism, but to begin, do we even know what the concepts of “terrorism” and “counterterrorism” entail? In his article on the EU terrorist list, Corentin Sire questions the implications of counterterrorism policies as a state of exception, and the potential drifts of such policies.
Current national policies are inseparable from both national particularities and specific historical contexts. To understand the distinctions between existing counterterrorism strategies in Europe, Adrien Morin, Zsófia Baumann and Mauro Lubrano propose historical analyses and security perspectives for the French, British and Italian counterterrorism arsenals.
The latest terrorism wave cannot be analyzed without incorporating the large-scale radicalization phenomenon that affected many young people across Europe. Zsófia Baumann discusses the issue through the spectrum of immigration and, more specifically, through Europe’s historical struggle in dealing with integration policies. In addition, who better than a professional with years of experience working at the contact of young radicalized individuals, can talk about radicalization? Hamed Mekrelouf, from the French Anti-Terrorist Fight Program (PLAT), accepted to answer our questions about the origins of the phenomenon and how to fight against it.
Finally, with the rise of far-right movements across Europe, there are growing concerns about the impact of populism on counterterrorism policies. Davis Elison explain to us why we should seriously worry about populist counterterrorism approaches.
We hope this first issue will give you both information and room for thought regarding the dynamics of European counterterrorism, and we welcome you back on board with us on this journey through the field of international security!
The Editorial Board
Cover Picture: an aerial view of Paris, © Free-Photos / pixabay
