Counter-Terrorism and Institutional Design

Abstract

North American Regional Security: A Trilateral Framework? By Richard J. Kilroy Jr., Abelardo Rodriguez Sumano, Todd S. Hataley. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2013. 255 pp., $58.50 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-588-26854-9). 9/11 and the Design of Counterterrorism Institutions. By Karlsson Michael. Surrey: Ashgate, 2012. 195 pp., $94.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-409-43456-6). These books address the question of the development of counter-terrorism institutions from opposite scales. 9/11 and the Design of Counterterrorism Institutions is a microlevel investigation of counter-terrorism policy in Northern Europe in the first weeks after 9/11. North American Regional Security , by contrast, looks at the development of regional security institutions in North America at a macrolevel, over the long term. Reviewing the two books together shows the different conclusions that can be drawn from these disparate analyses, and how they contribute to the research program of understanding counter-terrorism institutions. The first months after 9/11 were characterized by an intensive period of institution building that, in some cases, constituted a significant restructuring of government. Not surprisingly, much of the early analysis of this period was punditry rather than social science. With a decade of hindsight, however, political scientists have begun to use their theoretical tools to analyze the creation, structure, and functioning of those institutional and political changes. These books are part of that research program, drawing on theories about institutional design ( 9/11 and the Design of Counterterrorism Institutions ) and regional security complex theory ( North American Regional Security ). While it would be impossible to expect any single research project to incorporate both a micro- and a macroperspective, the insights from each could be fruitfully applied into the other in order to provide a fuller perspective. Regional security complex theory, which Richard Kilroy, Abelardo Rodriguez Sumano, and Todd Hataley use to analyze North American security, is part of Buzan and Waever's attempt to further integrate the constructivist bent of their securitization theory with the recognition that the regional, and the material, still matter (2003; see also Lake and Morgan 1997). They borrow Buzan and Waever's definition of a regional security complex as “a set of units whose major processes …