Terrorist acts in europe after the 11 september attack and the european union's efforts to establish a common policy towards terrorist acts

Abstract

Although there is no common definition of the concept of terrorism in the literature, it generally means instilling fear and intimidation. The historical starting point of this concept is the French Revolution of 1789. With the impact of globalisation, this concept has become a threat to both civilians and national governments. In this respect, when the European Union (EU) is considered as a federalist structure, the phenomenon of terrorism seems to be a serious problem for both the institution and the member states. When we examine the EU integration period until the 11 September attacks, it could not produce a common policy on the problem of terrorism. At that time, this problem was considered as an “internal security” problem and the EU made institutional policies at the level of national governments.

After the Twin Tower attack of 11 September 2001, the EU moved the fight against terrorism, which had been carried out at the national level, to the intergovernmental level.  After the 11 September terrorist act in the USA, terrorist incidents have been and continue to be experienced in European countries in a synchronised manner. The EU's counter-terrorism policy against these terrorist incidents constitutes the general framework of the study. During the European integration process, the most severe terrorist incidents started to be experienced after 2004. The chronological order of these terrorist incidents and how they are reflected in the EU counter-terrorism policies are tried to be explained within the framework of the Multilevel Governance Theory.

Key words: Terrorism, 11 September Attack. European Union, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Radicalization.