Changing Conceptions of Security and Their Implications for EU Home and Justice Affairs

This policy paper deals with the changing conception of security that points towards blurring the distinction between the internal and external dimensions as well as towards widening our understanding of what constitutes a security threat. The paper tries to link the discussion on new security threats together with the recent developments in European integration process. It claims that questions which used to be considered as internal security issues have been both Europeanised and externalised since the end the cold war. These two processes have had a major impact on structures, methods and priority areas of JHA.

The authors go on to show that the external projection of internal security agencies has generated increasing overlapping and occasional competition between police and military agencies.

According to them, internal-external policy coordination is a complex matter which should operate in two directions: external security policy tools should create synergies with internal policy objectives and, secondly, internal security policies should contribute to the general political objectives of the EU’s external policy.

The second part of the study is dedicated to a more detailed study of the impact of 9/11 on conceptions of security and the EU policies. The post-9/11 development has caused friction between security (increasing control, surveillance and intrusive investigatory procedures) and freedom (civil liberties, rights of non-EU nationals etc.). The dangers of post-9/11 policy are that the tendency towards negative rather than positive measures is further strengthened and that democratic control of security issues is weakened.

The authors doubt whether the post-9/11 reorientation of western policy is going to be permanent but they claim that 9/11 will nevertheless have some long-term implications for the dynamics and priority areas of JHA.

Anderson, Malcom, and Joanna Apap. "Changing Conceptions of Security and Their Implications for EU Home and Justice Affairs." Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2002.