EU counterterrorism, collective securitization, and the internal-external security nexus

ABSTRACT

The first two decades of EU counterterrorism policy are emblematic of the emergence of an internal-external security nexus. This has occurred through the EU’s collective securitization of terrorism as a transboundary threat that blurs the traditional divide between internal and external security requiring multidimensional and transboundary EU counterterrorism policies and practises. The EU’s status quo discourse of terrorism as primarily a national and internal security threat to be dealt with by domestic security agencies has transformed into strategic discourses, policies and practices that frame terrorism as a transnational threat to the EU requiring a transnational response that integrates internal and external policies, institutions, and capabilities. While institutional silos, turf wars, and differing institutional cultures continue to hamper the routinization of a transboundary response, this collective securitization of terrorism as a transboundary threat, within a wider internal-external security nexus, is reshaping the nature of the EU as a security actor.

KEYWORDS:

• Transboundary security
• internal-external security nexus
• European Union
• terrorism
• counterterrorism
• collective securitization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 On transboundary threats see (Boin & Rhinard, 2008).

2 On the internal-external security nexus see: (Eriksson & Rhinard, 2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alistair J.K. Shepherd

Alistair Shepherd is Senior Lecturer in European Security in the Departmental of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. His most recent monograph, The EU Security Continuum: Blurring Internal and External Security, was published by Routledge in 2021. He is also the co-author of Toward a European Army: a Military Power in the Making? (Lynne Rienner) and co-editor of the volume The Security Dimensions of EU Enlargement (MUP). He has published articles various journals including International Affairs, European Security, Global Society, and International Relations and is author of numerous book chapters. He is an Associate Editor of the Sage journal International Relations and is on the editorial board of the Routledge journal European Security.