Description
The violent attacks of 9/11 introduced a new global consensus of what terrorism is and how to counter it. A global “preventive turn” in counter-terrorism resulted from this consensus; in Europe, preventive approaches were enthusiastically accepted by national actors and EU institutions, even by countries well accustomed to fighting terrorism. Why was preventive counter-terrorism enthusiastically accepted by all? And why does it occupy place of honour in the EU’s counter-terrorism strategy? This article puts forward a theory of transnational indirect governance, using orchestration theory and a case study on the preventive counter-terrorism. It argues that through its championing of preventive counter-terrorism, more easily accepted by Member States precisely because of its preoccupation with social policy, the EU has actually managed to achieve governance capabilities, compensating its lack of access to the field with institutionalised influence and leverage over the main actors involved at implementation, practitioners.
Keywords: European Union; counter-terrorism; Prevention of Radicalisation; indirect governance; practitioners
