Securing the Homelands: Transatlantic Co-Operation after Bush
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2008.00350.x |
| Author | Wyn Rees |
| Date | 01 February 2009 |
| Published date | 01 February 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Securing the Homelands: Transatlantic
Co-operation after Bush
Wyn Rees
Since 9/11, internal security co-operation has grown into a major feature of transatlantic relations.
This article seeks to appraise both the achievements of the Bush administration in this field and the
prospects for President Obama’s period of office. Homeland security has been a new and difficult
area of co-operation to foster, yet both sides of the Atlantic have come to recognise their shared
interests in working together. The article cautions those European policy-makers who are hoping
for a major change in homeland security co-operation under the new president. It is likely that the
policies of the new administration will be characterised more by continuity than by change.
Keywords: homeland security; internal security; counter-terrorism; transatlantic
Introduction
The end of the Bush administration and the inauguration of the 44th president of
the United States in January 2009 have implications for ‘homeland’ security
co-operation with Europe as well as transatlantic relations more broadly. Since
9/11, homeland security has been a growing form of US–European co-operation
that has encompassed law enforcement and judicial action, intelligence and data
sharing as well as border and transport security. The importance attached to this
issue looks likely to continue. In January 2008, US Secretary for Homeland Security
Michael Chertoff acknowledged that Europe could be a source of future vulner-
ability when he warned that it could act as a ‘platform’ for al Qa’eda to strike
America (Weaver 2008, 1).
The development of homeland security co-operation has been part of a major
reordering of transatlantic security priorities. With the end of the cold war the
threat of territorial aggression against western Europe ceased and with it went the
traditional ballast of the transatlantic relationship. Throughout the 1990s the US
continued to be engaged in the security issues of the European continent such as
over NATO’s adaptation process, the enlargement of European organisations and
the conflicts in the Balkans. But with the 2001 attacks Washington’s security
agenda has changed and it has focused increasingly upon global issues. These global
issues present a variety of new and complex security challenges, ranging from
sub-state actors such as terrorist organisations to more traditional threats from state
adversaries.
The 2003 war against Iraq was a symbolic moment in this changing transatlantic
security agenda. This was the high point of American unilateralism in foreign policy
that resulted in a crisis with several European states including France and Germany.
The British Journal of
Politics and International Relations
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2008.00350.x BJPIR: 2009 VOL 11, 108–121
© 2008 The Author.Journal compilation © 2008 Political Studies Association
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