Introduction to The European Union as a Global Counter-Terrorism Actor

Abstract

This book focuses on the growth of the European Union (EU) as a global counter-terrorism actor over the past twenty years, from having almost no role in counter-terrorism in 2001 to being a significantly more important actor almost twenty years later. The threat of international terrorism has made European integration considerably accelerate internally and externally, as shown by the cooperation developed by the EU with a growing number of third countries. First of all, the EU collectively ‘securitized' this transnational threat, which the book explains by drawing upon the concept of ‘collective securitization'. Moreover, this book investigates whether the EU has become a global actor in counter-terrorism, drawing upon an ‘actorness' framework, which is then applied to three case studies. Overall, this book shows that the EU has become a counter-terrorism actor of growing importance and with an ever-diversifying number of policy options available. Conversely, it is noteworthy that European integration has also been considerably affected by international terrorism.