Objectives :

Analysis of the evolution of security in concept and practice in the aftermath of 11 September : role of military forces in internal security and antiterrorist measures, balance between policy and justice.

Relations inside the EU as well as between the EU and the US with regard to terrorism.

New balance between freedom, security and danger and the growing role of the military in the EU's internal security.

New logic of the control of persons, both EU citizens and foreigners, by transnational bureaucracies of control and surveillance.

Possibilities to adapt or to pass laws concerning the standards and the accountability of controls at National, European and Global level.

Reframing the concept of security and its impact on the structure of the three EU pillars.

Description of work/methodology :

1. We will analyse the different measures proposals in each country, the political games, the different implications borne by the adaptation (or not) of antiterrorist laws and analysing the political positioning of the actors involved. The researchers will collect the parliamentary debates on antiterrorism law proposals and analyze the positions of the political participants. What are the new texts and to which extent do they modify the former provisions, in particular with regard to legal and police co-operation ? A study based on an historical approach will be systematically operated in order to give an account for the specific conditions of the legal drafting of these texts.

2. We will further discuss the notion of (in)security at the different levels : the individual, the communal, the nation state, the EU and the transatlantic arena. We will discuss the notion of internal security and its distinction to external security, societal security as well as the different roles of police, judges, armies and secret services. How do they perceive and construct the threats ? What are the definitions selected for "terrorism" and the criteria for the denomination of terrorist actors ? What is the relationship between the notion of adversary and enemy if the inside/outside limits are undermined ? Do we have the (re)emergence of a notion of the enemy within ? We have already collected for France, Italy, Greece and Germany the main texts of concepts, doctrines of the involvement of military forces in case of terrorism and we have contacts with the main military and police organisations dealing with antiterrorist policies.

3. We will examine the reactions of the legal control authorities on the national and the European level. With a systematic recourse of interviews with agents in charge of antiterrorist measures, (police officers and police officers with military status - gendarmes in France, Guardia civil in Spain, Carabinieri in Italy, but also specialized magistrates and military officials). We will try to understand how the events of September 11 modify their ordinary professional practices and methods of inter-departmental co-operation. We look at the State level, the European level (Europol, Task force) and at the International level. Due to our experience we already possess a large list of contacts and maintain good relations with the different antiterrorist squads in Europe. We will further analyze the relationship between these professionals of security and the professionals of politics, what kind of interactions they have as well as its influence on the decision-making process of antiterrorist laws. We adopt a multidisciplinary and comparative approach drawn from political sociology, political science and international relations theory.

4. We also look at the reactions deriving from various measures adopted in different states. For this reason, we will meet those social agents (NGOs, upholders of civil liberties, lawyers…) which were mobilized through various laws. We will base our work on investigations of ethnographic type (semi-directive talks), which already begun within other frameworks in several fields (sensitive districts such as suburbs, immigrant communities, etc). We will try to analyze the reactions of these groups vis-à-vis those various measures, which aim sometimes, wrongly or rightly, at them directly. We will finally mobilize the principal documents on the subject.