Explaining EU internal security cooperation
Immigrants drowning near Italy, radicalized fighters returning to the UK from Syria and Iraq, and a sharp rise in organized crime in the Balkans: these events cast a sharp light on European Union (EU) cooperation in the area of internal security.
EU cooperation in this area reaches back to 1992, when the Maastricht Treaty included Justice and Home Affairs cooperation as one of the EU's three pillars. Since then, cooperation initiatives have grown exponentially, from common arrest warrants, the fight against terrorism, border controls and cybercrime, to anti-radicalization programs, asylum procedures and joint 'SWAT' teams. There is even an Internal Security Strategy in this expanding field. But how far has cooperation gone in practice?
The EU is sometimes accused of producing more talk than action - not least because member states find it easier to agree in principle than in practice. This book explores how well internal security cooperation takes place in practice. It offers a framework for analyzing internal security cooperation as a form of collective action attempting to produce 'public goods' - a benefit in common to all EU states.
Different sectors of internal security are analyzed by different authors employing the common framework, and the findings are clear: states want to cooperate but encounter short-term disincentives like fears of free riding and temptations to retreat from their commitments. The book shows that EU's institutions need to address these disincentives if cooperation is to improve.
Mark Rhinard is Senior Research Fellow and head of the Europe Research Program at UI. His research focuses on European cooperation questions, especially in the areas of external and internal security. His current research projects include the EU as a global actor, the EU's rising role in societal (or 'homeland') security, institutional politics in the EU, and comparative civil security systems in Europe.
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