Solemn celebrations and expressions of solidarity marked the tenth anniversary of 9/11. The terrorist attacks that occurred on that day killed nearly 3,000 innocent civilians and embodied a grave assault on the fabric of America’s democratic life, notably, in the words of Jerzy Bucek, the ‘respect for fundamental liberties, human dignity, religious pluralism and justice.’¹ The United States, the European Union and its Member States reacted swiftly to the challenge. 9/11 became a catalyst for the creation of vast homeland security infrastructures in the US and extensive counterterrorism cooperation practices across the Atlantic.

The tenth anniversary of 9/11 calls for...

This chapter addresses the revived cooperation between the European Union and the United States on cybercrime and cybersecurity, ten years after the Joint EC/US Task Force on Critical Infrastructure Protection.¹ On 20 November 2010, following the acknowledgement of the ‘growing challenge of cyber-security and cyber-crime,’² the EU-US Working Group on Cyber-security and Cyber-crime (hereafter the WGCC) was set up. Despite its opaque character,³ the WGCC has crucial objectives, among them ‘consider(ing) options for outreach to other regions or countries addressing similar issues to share approaches and related activities and avoid duplication of effort.’⁴ In other words, it aims to shape...

Despite the waning political importance of the EU to the US, transatlantic legal and administrative relations have intensified in recent times. While a growing number of EU institutional actors and agencies interact with US legal and administrative bodies, the Court of Justice of the European Union has only had limited involvement in this area so far and little opportunity to review the increasingly ‘high politics’ dimension of this EU-US juridical relationship. EU external relations law has in the main dealt with arcane and esoteric questions regarding exclusive or shared competences, legal bases and inter-pillar disputes.¹ However, the explosive character of...

The tenth anniversary of the attacks of 11 September 2001 gives pause for thought and an opportunity to reflect on the next steps for the transatlantic security relationship. The attacks on that fateful day did more than highlight the increasing complexities of terrorism. They also cast global interdependencies and a widening threat environment into sharp relief. The world’s common arteries and infrastructures, which generate great prosperity in normal times, were used by a small group of agents to wreak havoc in one of the world’s most powerful countries. This lesson was repeated in subsequent, less dramatic events – the insidious...

Border-related reform constitutes part of security sector reform and, more broadly, externally-assisted state-building, often defined as the construction of effective governmental institutions in the recipient state. It is however also seen as ‘milieu shaping’ aimed at the projection of a system of governance which creates a favourable environment for an actor. It is to shape ‘the other’ in an attempt to protect ‘the self’. The EU explicitly formulates such an approach in the European Internal Security Strategy, a document which urges the relevant actors to ‘work with our neighbours and partners to address the root causes of the internal security...

Afghanistan has dominated the transatlantic agenda for the past decade. For both the EU and the US, successful Security Sector Reform (SSR) as a component of the broader international engagement in Afghanistan represents an indirect way to potentially increase their internal security by curbing state failure, regional instability, and by extension organised crime and safe havens for terrorist groups. Respective EU and US engagement illustrates enduring differences over the manner in which each partner approaches the challenges of security and post-conflict reconstruction. The EU, which focuses on institution building, the rule of law and other civilian contributions to post-conflict reconstruction,...

Since the turn of the century, North Africa has become one the geographical laboratories for the externalisation of EU and US homeland security policies. For the EU, even though it remains fragmented and uncoordinated,¹ the conclusion of readmission agreements, counterterrorism clauses and cooperation on border control has become part of the diplomats’ toolbox when negotiating with North African countries. The US mainly relied on partners in the region to conduct secret renditions and deploy counterterrorism programmes in the Sahel.

Ten years after 9/11, the challenge is for transatlantic partners to find innovative ways to support freedom, security and justice in...