The Gulf Cooperation Council and counter-terror cooperation in the post-9/11 era: a regional organization in comparative perspective

Abstract

Following the September 2001 (9/11) Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States the terror threat posed by transnational non-state violent actors rose to the top of the international security agenda. This article examines the evolution of counter-terror cooperation between member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the five years that followed the unprecedented 9/11 attacks. In doing so, it will examine the types of counter-terror cooperation available to members of a regional organization (RO), as well as the obstacles that they face in developing effective counter-terror cooperation capabilities. It will then provide an analysis of GCC counter-terror cooperation in the period under study contrasting, where relevant, the GCC’s counter-terror responses with those of two other leading regional organizations in the international system – the EU and ASEAN.