Friday, January 16, 2015

Hegemann: International Counterterrorism Bureaucracies in the United Nations and the European Union

Hendrik Hegemann has published International Counterterrorism Bureaucracies in the United Nations and the European Union (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 a complex web of international structures and rules for the fight against transnational terrorism has emerged. However, previous research, so far, disregarded the organizational basis of counterterrorism cooperation. Using the example of bureaucratic actors in the United Nations and the European Union, this study examines how and to which degree international counterterrorism bureaucracies exercise autonomy and perform distinct functions. The examination reveals the special ambivalence of counterterrorism cooperation for international bureaucracies, which need to reconcile calls for effective counterterrorism with the need to maintain an impression of technical impartiality in a particularly contested policy-field. They respond to this challenge with different strategies of politicization and depoliticization.